One World
by Phoenix Reece
Summary: A Massive Anime, Cartoon, and Game Crossover Fanfic. Two children at heart create a machine that fuses dimensions to create a single universe where every creature can live together in harmony. But, nothing good ever lasts. The last chapter is out.
1. Base camp

**Author's Note**

Well, I've been hinting at this story for a little while, and I'm still not sure if I'm fully ready to debut it, so I'm just going to put the first chapter up. It's nothing really special, but It's one of the first real stories I've ever written and it has a lot of potential in eyes. So, here we go.

**One world: A Massive Crossover Fanfic**

**Book 1: Obsidian**

_They said we were crazy, that those other worlds didn't exist. They said we'd just have to give it up and accept reality. My best friend, he was the backbone for everything, a child prodigy who created the one world project and gave it life. We both knew that in an ever expanding universe alternate dimensions had to exist. Maybe even one where things we thought we had made up existed. Anything and everything was possible, so why not a world where cartoon characters had existed. And we did it, the machine brought those worlds together, all of them. We now had one world where we could all coexist, but, nothing good ever lasts. It all went sour._

_That's where I am, the war_

Reece slowly pulled the pen from his journal. He forgot the date, what was it again? God, it must have been five years since the war began, the incident in celestia. His train of thought was interrupted by the radio. It crackled with static for a few seconds, then a familiar voice echoed over it.

"Reece, you got a message from command, better get up here quick."

His face illuminated with a smile, "On my way Coop!" He tossed the journal onto his bed, and headed out into the narrow hallway, almost falling through the curtain that seperated the room across the hallway from him. He paused for a moment, laying his hand on the dirt beside the entryway, where they'd carved out their rooms in the dirt.

"Right, Jenny's still sleeping." Reece muttered as he turned away and went down the hall. He stopped for a moment in the small space that served as a kitchen. A short white creature, clad in his yellow bowler cap and blue shirt stood pigeon-toed near the small fridge. He had a distant look in his dim eyes, and an underbite a mile long. But something about the odd creature was comforting to Reece, it was his decision the group kept him, after finding him alone in the woods some three months ago.

"Mornin' Homsar!" Reece smiled and grabbed the tin coffee pot lying on the counter, pouring out the hot black liquid into his cup "How's the coffee, you little blue misspelling?"

"Daaaaaaah, I forgot the pinstripes Darlene." He said, his hat popping off and landing back on his head with every syllable.

"Um, yeah, keep up the good work then." Reece said, swigging the last of his coffee and dashing up the ladder to the ground level. The room it led into was a small circular chamber with a vault-like door on one end that was being guarded by a short green bear in military fatigues, a veteran from another land. Nearby, a red porcupine of the bear's size sat on a supply crate. She was sipping a cup of tea and playing with her dandruff-laden quills nervously.

"Good morning Flippy," Reece said, saluting the bear. He gave a quick salute back.

"Yeah, good as it'll get around here." Said Flippy. He leaned back against the wall and let his rifle do the same.

Reece noticed the porcupine was looking a little pale, and kneeled down to speak to her, "Hey, Flaky, you okay? You look a little tired"

She gave a weak laugh, "Oh, yeah, I am. I just um, wanted to stay with Flippy last night. He had guard duty and I just didn't want him to get lonely."

"How sweet," He said, making Flaky blush, "Well, I'll talk to you guys later; Coop says we got a message from command!"

"Huh, maybe we'll finally get out of here. Not likely though." Flippy said, his voice tinged with frustration. Reece had to agree with him, it was unusually dangerous to be posting a scavenge unit this close to the obsidian factory. They supplied the empire's armies with around 200 fresh new killing machines daily, not to mention the roving robotic squadrons that patrolled the woods surrounding the factory. Danger of death, or worse, plagued Reece's mind, but he managed to shake it off.

"Yeah, maybe we will get moved out." He said, with a weak smile.

The computer room was down a short hallway, Reece could easily see it's one inhabitant from the start of the hallway. Coop was a heavy set man, blonde hair, and a torn jacket and jeans. He was an expert mechanic and could easily pilot any vehicle. But, he was almost useless without his machine. He had spent years of working on it, making it a state of the art vehicle of war, just to have it stolen from him in the night by the empire. He was taken into custody, and broken out by the resistance, but they were never able to recover his life's work.

"Hey, Reece, good to see ya. Here, check this out." Coop maneuvered his arms through the mass of wires, radars and blinking lights to reach for a small laptop computer. He drew the mouse over to his message box and clicked open a file, "Orders straight from the resistance General of our section."

_Reece Vallo,_

_As commanding officer it is my duty to inform you and your squadron of a patrol headed toward your area. This squadron numbers at the minimum of twenty robots, maximum unknown, and word has it that it is being led by an empire general. Immediate evacuation and clean-up is your only option. _

_General Jack,_

_1__st__ Rebellion force of the People's Resistance._

"Damn it!" Reece said grimly, "Coop, get the group together and stock the truck. We need to get out of here ASAP" He left the computer room without another word, heading into the main room. "Flippy, pack up the munitions, we need to evacuate the area."

Flaky heard this and began to cry "Again? Is this ever going to end?" she said, sniffing back her tears.

Reece didn't answer. He climbed back down the ladder, only nodding as he passed by Homsar, "Moving out, Haddiman, pack up your stuff." Homsar didn't move, only looked around the room blankly.

As he approached the locked door, Reece became nervous. He took a deep breath and slowly opened the metal door.

"Don't you ever knock?" A girl's voice said, dully.

Reece hesitated opening the door the rest of the way, but finally pushed his way in. Light gingerly caressed the voice's body until he could she her clearly.

Jenny sat on her bunk, a cord plugged into the back of her head leading into a generator. She had an off-white body, with blue metal casings around her chest and hips to resemble a skirt and top. The top of her head was painted blue, and two triangular metal ponytails jutted from her head. Her eyes made a clicking sound as she blinked, and the dull hum of the generator prevented silence from setting in.

"I'm sorry Jenny," Reece said carefully "I thought you were sleeping." He walked a little closer to her.

"I can recharge while I'm awake, it gives me time to think. It's about all I can do now." Jenny said bitterly.

Reece suddenly remembered. The first battle, the unexpected attack. Seeing her damaged, she was the only one he could save. He stared down at the dirt floor, trying to figure out why he chose to save her a damaged robot girl. He shook it off, remembering the danger they were in.

"Jenny, there's a patrol headed our way. Grab anything you want to keep and tear the scrap metal off the walls, we'll need it." Reece said, trying to sound official.

Jenny cringed at the sound of "Scrap Metal", it was really all she was now. Reece left into his room and Jenny scooped up her generator.

* * *

Well, there we have it. The first story I wrote. I'm a little too nervous to say anything witty. Please, tell me what you think.

Oh, and I'm not entirely sure where to put this story, so I'm putting in the X-Over section. It's got characters from a LOT of different cartoons, anime, manga, and video games, so I wasn't too sure.


	2. Escape

**Author's Note**

Well, I guess I've got a good story going so far, from what I've heard. I just wonder if it'll be able to rise up among all the other stories. Well, here's to my good fortune!

**One World**

The troop transport was nothing more than a truck with a large flatbed on the back, a tarp draped over it in a sloppy tent to keep its passengers and cargo dry. Reece sat on a bench in the back, looking back at the mound of dirt that used to be their base. Everything of value was removed, and the entire base was collapsed. It was built underground to keep the empire's troops from discovering them, unnoticeable from above and easily destroyed without leaving a trace. That's the way the scout and scavenge parties worked, silently and quickly.

Jenny sat in the passenger seat up front, staring hopelessly out the window. Coop was driving silently, he needed to stay focused in the woods, he couldn't afford to lose the truck in a ditch somewhere. Homsar somehow found his was aboard the truck, and stood in the corner by the supplies, somehow blowing bubbles from his mouth. Reece chuckled at him; he always managed to brighten up a situation. Flippy sat on a bench across from him, Flaky sleeping on his lap.

"This is too much," Flippy said, stroking Flaky's quills with the back of his hand "Flaky wasn't built for this kind of life. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her to this war."

Reece stared back, he didn't know what to say. His eyes darted from Flaky's slumbering expression of peace, to his own weak hands, to Homsar's blank stare, to Jenny's dented body, to Coop's waistline.

"None of us were, we're refugees at best," He finally said, "I'm sorry Flippy, you don't deserve this, to be fighting a war I started."

Flippy pushed Flaky's head off of his lap and onto the bench. He stood and stared Reece in the eyes "You didn't start this war," He said, enraged, " You know damn well who,"

Hard beats sounded through the truck, as if something metal was pounding against the roof. Flippy clutched his head in agony, growling. He was changing, he couldn't stop it. Flaky, meanwhile, was just beginning to open her eyes, lazily drifting back awake when she heard his growl. This shocked her back to reality, and she leapt up and wrapped her arms around him from behind.

"Flippy, please! Calm down, calm down, it's only hail. I'm here, please, don't worry." She said, slowly coaxing him down.

Flippy shook violently at first, but soon was breathing slowly and then he was back. He suffered from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time spent in his homeland's war before the worlds were merged. After years of therapy and self-training, he had been able to suppress his flip-outs, but if his temper got the best of him and something unexpected happened, then _He_ might re-emerge.

"T-thank you Flaky," He said between gasps. Flaky let him go,

"It's all right, I'll always be there." She said, giving a weak giggle.

"Well, aren't you two cute?" Coop said with a laugh. Flippy's face turned red, Flaky's even more than usual. Reece and even Jenny broke out laughing. The truck seemed alive, as if they weren't fleeing for their lives.

But, hours later that were still driving. The group actually began to occupy themselves with some games, Reece and Flippy were playing poker. Or they were trying to, as Homsar kept eating the cards and Reece could swear Flaky was giving Flippy hints. They sat there, peaceful for at least a little while, until Flippy's ears perked up.

"What's going on?" Reece asked as he ran to the pile of supplies.

"Just, just hold on," Flippy said, pulling a pair of binoculars out. He ran to the back of the truck, peering out into the distance. Far off, he could make out a few hovering figures. But, he had no idea how dangerous the enemies he was seeing really were.

…

Above the misty night, the hail had reverted to rain once again. And cutting through the black sky was a sinister being, clad in a dark leather coat. He sat atop a clockwork throne of gears and whirring propeller blades, resting his head on his arm. He tapped a few buttons on his arm rest, a few blinking lights illuminated and he tapped away at them until some code or sequence appeared to him. In these flashing lights, one could make out his features. He had a pale grey face, marked with some creepy face paint along his eyes. His hair was a bright red, and pulled up by a pair of bright yellow goggles he wore upon his forehead. From his position, Flippy saw as a swarm of robots pulling up alongside him.

"Shit," Flippy said aloud. Without another word he went to the front, alerting Coop to their pursuers.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Coop said, pulling into a small clearing in the woods. He parked the truck in a ditch to hide it as best as they could, and the group took cover behind a fallen tree. Coop clutched a shotgun, just being able to peer over their makeshift cover to warn of any incoming enemies. Flippy, Jenny and Reece both had long range rifles, Homsar was unarmed, but he was never really a big player in any battle.

Flaky, meanwhile, was hiding in the back of the darkened van, her best bet was to avoid combat at all costs. She clutched a pistol close to her heart for protection.

* * *

Hmm, I never really noticed how short these chapters were when I was typing them. I'm going to have to fix that. But, besides that I think this is going well!

-Your pal Phoenix Reece.


	3. Taken

**Author's Note**

Y'know, I still can't believe this is happening. I mean, I've been writing this story for some time, in fact I'm already on the next book, and yet I'm surprised to be putting it up. It just feels odd, and yet I can't place why. Well, at the very least I hope you people are enjoying my little tale.

**One World**

The radar on the armrest of the mechanical throne beeped dully, displaying several small blips on its screen. It was a high powered metal detector, and when one knew the area well, they knew where metal belonged and where it did not. The obsidian factory was one of the few areas where any variety of metal in the large woodland area was found. The factory, where obsidian altered by the great merge was mined nearby was melted down and used as a laser-proof coating that made the Empire's robots a lethal force for the Resistance, who had to resort to less accurate firearms, whose ammunition was much more finite. But, anywhere else in this large forested area where metal was found could mean only one thing, Rebel scouting parties. The parties were often unarmed, or very poorly armed, to enable faster travel, and it also made them,

"Easy prey," The figure atop the throne muttered to himself. It was Jack Spicer, one of the highest officials in the Eternal Empire. Why he was out patrolling his own stronghold was a mystery, perhaps he simply enjoyed a certain sadistic rush in hunting down rebels himself.

People say war makes men of its soldiers, and yet it had the opposite effect on General Spicer. His status as a Child prodigy propelled him to a high position in the advanced society that the great merge had created, placing him next to robotics masters Dr. Light and Dr. Senbei Norimaki, but his childish greed and bitter disposition eventually led to his hand in the Celestian incident, the one that nearly took Reece and Jenny's lives, and even still took those of many others. Now he was one of the highest robotics experts in the entire Empire. His life's work was now to devise elaborate and terrifying killing machines for the Empire's gain.

The whirling throne touched down on the moistened earth, the propeller blades slowing to a stop as he stepped out into the cold rain. He raised one hand and the robots circling the area landed beside him. Their dome like bottoms folded out in sliding panels to form human-like legs. He tapped a few buttons on his wrist, pinpointing the area, he knew very well where his captives were.

Behind the downed tree, Reece clutched his rifle, a small semi-automatic obsolete even before the war. But, the rebels used what they could and wasted nothing, a humbling lifestyle.

He peered above the tree trunk, looking over his shoulder for a second, and when that fiery red hair caught his eye he flung himself back to the dirt, panting heavily.

"No no no, no it's one of them." He looked as if he was in a trance.

"One of who, what are you talking about?" Coop whispered, his voice was inaudible to the enemy, the rain hushed his words.

"Spicer, Jack Spicer is here!" Flippy and Jenny turned on his words.

"What, no, you have to be wrong. Why would he be here?" Jenny said.

"The obsidian factory," Flippy, muttered under the rain, "He has to be here regulating or overseeing new experiments. But we don't have time to be scared, he's going to kill us!"

"He's right, stay focused." Coop said, still holding his shotgun close to his heart. He was the oldest, around his late 30's, and even if he was the third highest rank in the platoon he was often the voice of reason. And Flippy was indeed right, as they spoke Spicer had already signaled two drones beside him to investigate the covered truck, they could hide nothing from him.

They slowly lifted the flap on the back of the truck to peer inside, the moonlight illuminating the darkened compartment, until it touched Flaky's shivering body. She let out a shrill scream, but as soon as one robot lifted its arms to fire, a bowie knife pierced its head, sending oil and sparks spilling from its steel cranium. Flaky, in her panic, wasted no time unloading a full clip into the robot.

That was all the signal they needed. With a crack of lighting at their heels, the rebels sprung up from behind the tree trunk and fired, successfully destroying two robots between the four of them. The remaining fifteen or so formed a firing wall around Spicer, laying down fire on their position. But the troops were stronger than they appeared, dodging the robots strikes and taking advantage of their delay in targeting that all rebels could exploit, with practice of course. Robot after robot was staggered and eventually destroyed by the concentrated fire of the lone battalion.

But this was hardly an easy fight; the rain was their worst enemy. Since Spicer had touched the earth the rain became vicious, bashing the ears and eyes of all, save for Jenny, whose mechanical eyes felt nothing and could remain open in the driving rain. The thunder and lightning beat away at their senses, along with the deathly fear of how easily they could die in what could be the next few hours, and days even if they escape. The rain eroded their will to fight, and it caused them to neglect a target or two, what could have been their demise.

Reece pulled his head over the barricade again to fire, and felt his rifle be wretched violently from his hands, and a metal fist send him tumbling over backwards, skidding in the mud to the base of a tree. He felt around, and looked up to see the blurry, but immediately recognizable figure of an Empire Jackbot standing above him. His glasses had been knocked from his face, and now his own poor vision coupled rain made it nearly impossible to see. The piercing red eyes of the robot glanced down on him, ready to strike when it spotted another figure. Homsar had once again found his way to the battlefield, useless as usual. The robot approached it, but then Homsar let out a psychotic wail.

"DWAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

His voice undulated in pitch at random, and everyone nearby could immediately hear him, despite the rain that had drowned out everything but the gunshots. The robot hunched over Reece recoiled and clutched its head in pain, giving Reece the opportunity to fight back. He reached over his left shoulder and gripped the tape wrapped handle of a steel baseball bat.

"BONK!" He screamed, collapsing the Jackbot's chest with a ferocious one handed blow, "BOINK!" another struck it's head, crumpling it and causing it to fall in a sparking pile of scrap before him. That sudden blow, that rush of invigorating primal rage flowed from the tip of the bat to his own adrenaline filled heart. Reece, a simple refuge scout had just bludgeoned an Empire killing machine to death, and now he had another goal in mind. Now, he'd take revenge.

Putting one foot on the tree trunk that was supposed to be his cover, pulling his head up to the lethal beams that could roast his over confident head without a moment's notice. To the shock of even his own team, he pointed the bat out at Spicer, behind his crumbling wall of advancing robots, that, despite the rebels best efforts was at least ten Jackbots strong.

"SPICER! Remember me? I'm not dead, not yet!" He screamed over the rain, "I'm gonna kill you for what you did!" He sprung off the trunk, leaping at the robots directly in front of Jack, striking down a bot near him, and then bringing the solid steel club down on Spicer himself. But, Reece's arms shook on the impact, as if he'd struck concrete.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Spicer held the bat over his head, one hand had caught the swing. A cybernetic glove, of such an advanced variety that its fibers were welded into his very nerves, was adorning his right hand, giving him super-human strength. He pulled the bat, tossing Reece to the ground. Before Reece could pull himself up he felt the bat strike him, knocking him back down. Spicer had thrown it on his body, and effortlessly kicked him onto his back.

"And 'What I've done?' I've ruined plenty of lives, what makes you so special?" He gritted his teeth, and pressed his boots down on Reece's throat, choking him. He looked up at Jack, pulling at his foot in a futile effort to pull himself free. Jack glanced into his eyes, and suddenly realized who he was standing on.

"Well, well, well." He laughed, "If it isn't the little dreamer hero, how's your little blue girlfriend?" his captive grew wide-eyed.

"That's right, we know. How did you think we couldn't? The Lord sees all, he knows all." He turned to the small holdout of the rebels and raised his hand, the Jackbots ceased fire, and he kicked Reece onto his stomach. Then, he broke into a sprint at the cover, darting his eyes across it to find his mark. Jenny, Coop, and Flippy, who didn't realize what was going on, emerged from the barricade to fire again. But Jack drew his coat, a powerful micro-weaved compound, over his body to block every shot. And, with his mechanically assisted legs, he leapt over the barricade with ease, landing on top of Coop. Jenny tried to fire, but from within his coat, Jack fired a taser that latched onto her metal body and with a shock and a yelp of pain, disabled her. He picked her up, ignoring Flippy's futile attacks to his heavily armored back, and held her close to his body.

"Now now, don't worry honey. Daddy'll take care of ya." He chuckled, and a pair of propeller blades extended from his back, lifting him into the air. As he flew into the clearing skies, Jack called over his shoulder,

"So long rebels, consider this a trade, this little clockwork playingthing for your lives. And consider yourselves very lucky that I'm so generous."

Flippy tried to steady his rifle to shoot Spicer out of the sky, but Coop placed his large hand over the barrel, pushing it down.

"No, just no. It's the rebellion's problem now, we can't do anything else for her. For them."

……

Bright, a bright blur flickered in and out of sight, as Reece slowly blinked back into consciousness. The lack of air and repeated blows from Spicer had knocked him unconscious, and yet someone must have scooped him back up from the battlefield, and brought him to a makeshift camp. He was in the truck, the light on top of the tarp shining in his eyes.

"Reece, are you feeling okay?" Someone beside him asked. It was Flaky, her sweet whisper of a voice would be impossible to miss. He looked over but only saw a red blotch.

"Flaky, do you have my,"

"Glasses, oh yeah, I had to dig through the mud to find them. Lucky they'd only been knocked off your face, so nothing broke." She passed them into his hands, and he sat up from the cot she had placed him on.

"What happened, did we win?" He asked, clutching his head.

"Well, we lived. Spicer, he spared us but he, he took Jenny."

"What? No, no!" He stood, "This, this is my fault! I did this, he couldn't have known Jenny was with us, he wouldn't have known if I hadn't let him know who I was. Fuck." He fell back to the cot.

"Fuck, I'm the biggest fuck-up in history."

"Shut up, I hate it when you do this." Flippy called from the other side of the truck. "Grow a backbone for God's sake."

"Flippy!" Flaky shot him an aggravated glance, as if she was his wife.

"What? I'm tired of these pity parties. He would have found Jenny regardless, and you had the balls to risk your life to try and stop him, so stop acting like everything's your fault."

"Well, it doesn't matter what we did, does it? Not like we can do anything else."Reece said, looking around the truck to see if anyone else had been lost. But, Flaky was right, everyone else had been spared.

"Actually, we can do two things." Flippy said, standing up from the wall he was leaning on, "One, we file a stolen weapons report, send it to the rebellion HQ and wait till the fifth of never, because we both know they don't give a fuck about a stolen android.

"Or?"

"Or we run a covert mission to steal back Jenny, risking your life once again to steal her."

"I'll fucking kill him." Reece stood, pulling his mud-drenched bat from the pile of supplies.

"Now you're speaking MY language." Flippy gave him a cocky grin.

"But, how do we know where Spicer took Jenny?"

"Easy. When Doctor Wakeman built Jenny, she made something far beyond anything Spicer could ever make. So, even if she's damaged, there's only one place he'd take her to research and dismantle her.

"Obsidian"

* * *

God, I really have to update these chapters more often. I started working on this one a week ago. Honestly, I'm sorry, but videogames ate my soul. But this story deserves much more attention than I've been giving it. Really I think the most enjoyable part of this story is going to be creating a universe of characters, their acheivements and impacts in the world. Hell, I've got one of my friends hard at work creating the science for this! It's got big potential, make no mistake.


	4. The 1st

**Author's Note**

Hello friends, boy am I feeling chipper today. I woke up feeling great, had a warm cup of coffee and was off on my last day of school before midterms (Which means two things, easy standardized tests and half days/days off. Plus in my culinary class we whipped up some delicious banana chocolate chip pancakes so that'll put a smile on anyone's face. And now I get to write another chapter for my wonderful fans.

Oh, and just to clear something up, another character named Jack is going to appear in this chapter. He's most definitely NOT Jack Spicer, so I apologize if anyone gets confused. They're both important characters though, so make sure you don't get them mixed up. I'll try to refer to the Empire's Jack as Jack Spicer or General Spicer to keep from confusion, but I'll always just call the Rebellion's Jack simply Jack. But enough of this Jack nonsense, you're probably going to want to meet the new Jack anyway.

And, also, I have to ask. Does this story belong here? I mean in the Misc Crossovers Category. I was just looking at the other stories here and I got me thinking I was in the wrong place. Maybe I need to relocate to somewhere more appropriate…. any ideas? I'm gonna put it in the cartoon X-overs for now.

**One World**

The following night, stars hung in the dim sky and the fires of the camp burned brightly. Numerous torches and lanterns hung in front of tents, lined up in a massive mobile tent city that was the specialty of the 1st Rebellion Ground Force. The Rebellion against the Eternal Lord had to be divided to span the globe, and so many forces were established.

The Merge, it seemed, had only somewhat increased the size of Earth, despite the new beings introduced to its soil. What seemed to happen during The Merge was a balance of land. Continents that coincided in the universes' hospitable planets seemed to overlap each other, and became one, slightly larger landmass. The oceans swelled considerably as well, becoming not only vaster but deeper. Though The Merge allowed for few years of scientific study before the war erupted (killing many great minds), it was determined that earth was around 1.5 times its original diameter. Greater than any in history would be the empire that spanned the vast world of Neo Terra (As some called it), and unfortunately that ultimate empire was the one the Rebellion fought tirelessly to end.

Studies had also shown that there was a great mass of objects, upon closer inspection proved to be surrounded by some kind of great energy and filled with "Dimensional Junk" or pieces of land or technology that had not combined with Earth during The Merge.

But, our story takes place here, in what was once the forests of Canada, twisted by the Eternal Empire's design. Animals, both the old and new avoided the area of course. The only beings in it now were the Rebels, and the Empire

Through the bustling tent city a man, of a thin faced, calm expression, black hair tied back in a top know on his head, strolled, a black flag flew on a pole affixed to his back. It flew the twisted wings of purple and blue that symbolized the Eternal Empire, topped with a transparent silver crown of the Eternal Lord. He walked, with a calm stride, hands lying limp to either side, covered by the long white sleeves of his robe. A silk crest hung on his left shoulder, strips of red and blue entwined together around a white star that symbolized the Ground Rebellion, and beneath the crest a sword was sheathed on his waist. People poked their heads from the tents to greet him, waived and even offered him snacks, which he gratefully declined.

"Hey General, going on a special mission?" A boy of about twenty three asked in a thick foreign accent. He was tall, large jawed, but his muscles were well toned, a life as the son of a shepherd was a difficult life.

"Yes, but please lieutenant," He smiled warmly at the boy "Call me Jack, General would make you sound inferior."

The lieutenant laughed "Oho! Yes sir Jack, but only if you would call me Rolf!"

"Certainly, Rolf. Remember to stay strong, your flock needs you now more than ever. I will be away, hopefully for one night, but more if I'm captured."

"Now that is a slap on the knee, you captured?" Rolf laughed some more, returning to his tent. Jack smiled and continued down the path, that boy had always made him laugh, but he always trusted him with his unit. He was a simple, yet reliable boy. While in thought, he closed his eyes, and his face took on a peaceful expression.

He reached a clearing in the maze of tents, a dirt floored, wide open area that almost seemed like a marketplace with the all the movement it contained. But in truth the jovial masses were the soldiers of the ground rebellion, chatting, trading rations and comparing weaponry. Jack slowly approached a larger tent, where several more indirect members of the rebellion were hurrying in and out, carrying machines, lab samples, and scavenged electronic devices. Moving out of the way of a young scientist, a youth with a black beanie topping his head, Jack stepped inside. The inside of the tent was filled with racks of computers, and the rebellion scientists were working tirelessly to repair weapons with the scavenged metal and analyze various flora and fauna samples from the surrounding area, most importantly the blue-moon fungus that grew in the caves and near the bases of the mountain.

A modern miracle in magical science, or M Tech as it was sometimes known, the blue-moon fungus can break down nearly any mineral by the use of a low level density-weakening spell (Or a Debuff, as mages more commonly called it). But, the plants ability to cast spells is not its most amazing quality, but in its inefficiency in mana production. It creates mana through a photosynthesis-like process, but because of its weak body it ends up excreting large amounts of mana, which can be harvested for use by mages like,

" The mages of Kortin-Tor" A voice from one of the lab tables called, it was Dexter, a powerful scientist for the rebellion, despite his age and most obvious of all his size. "I see you've come to check on the field General."

"Yes," Jack approached the six mages, who were seated cross-legged on the ground, surrounding a pillar of steel that crackled with glowing energy of the six. Three Blood Elves, all female, two Gnomes, one of both genders, and a Human male sat, their eyes open, but in a deep trance. Attached to their mouths were surgical masks that connected to a line of glass cylinders, lined with the Blue-Moon fungus and filled with a bluish purple gas, which was a mana enriched mist that the fungus created when contained, caused by the mana energy adhering to water vapor in the air.

"Are they stable?" Jack asked, distressed.

"But of course, don't concern yourself with their toil. Only three need to be concentrated on the spell at once, the other three are meditating." The mages were a vital part of the 1st, they provided a nearly impenetrable cover for them, even in enemy territory like this. Combining their efforts, they could fold space around them , creating a small pocket that some believe even the Eternal Lord cannot penetrate.

"I pains me to see them working to death like this."

"They are different General, mages require little rest. And take heart in that without them we would not have made it to obsidian in one piece."

"Speaking of one piece, have all the scouting parties been tracked down?"

"Well, surprisingly even the ones that didn't know about our occupation here have been found by our scouts and rounded up, but one hasn't made it back, the 37th."

"Any knowledge on their whereabouts?"

"Unfortunately, no. But a few scouting parties returning back have reported gun and laser fire. Though it was impossible to track due to the heavy rain."

"Then what can we assume?"

"KIA or POW, so keep your eyes open on the raid tonight."

Jack smiled at Dexter, only 18 years of age and yet so mature. "Sometimes I think you should be the General, Dexter."

He smiled back, and adjusted his glasses proudly, "No thanks, I'm not too good with a sword. But as I remember Hammer and Dagger squads are waiting on your orders."

"Yes sir, General Dexter." He joked, leaving the tent back into the crowded field. Near the center of the field, a roaring bonfire was burning through the night, several of the 1st Rebellion Special Ops were seated around it. Oddly enough, seated near the fire was Jack himself, sipping a glass of red wine that one of the Rebels had placed by his seat. Jack, however, approached from behind and calmly addressed this other "Jack",

"Espion, please leave my seat. I have an important announcement."

"But of course," The other Jack responded in a suave French accent. For a moment, the second Jack flashed blue and was surrounded by smoke, and when it cleared a tall gentleman, clad in a blue suit and a matching ski mask, stood in front of Jack.

"My apologies, my humor is ill-timed on occasion." He laughed and took the seat next to Jack as the general seated himself, and planted the Empire Flag beside him.

"Agents of the Rebellion," Jack began, speaking with great charisma, "it is our duty on this cold night to destroy the Obsidian Factory, crippling the enemies and their supply of robots. It is our duty as the Hammer and Dagger squads, the elite of the 1st Ground force, to accomplish this mission covertly and quickly, and avoid dragging in the militia in what would be a devastating war.

"Now hold on here," A large Scottish man, around twice Jack's size, sporting a claymore to match and a bottle of whiskey in one hand "Are these the actually orders, because the last Jack we had up here said we'd just go up and moon the bloody idiots, which sounds like a better idea to me!" The group broke down laughing, along with Jack, who actually managed to crack a smile. Jack and the Scotsman went way back, and that's why he trusted no one else but him with the Hammer Squad, one of the 1st most revered squadron.

"I admire your spirit Scots," A green haired man said, admiring two of his three swords, "But I hope you remember you're OUR back-up."

"Back-up?" The Scotsman shouted, "Is that what you call it when WE bail yer asses out?"

A man seated with them, dressed in a white coat, sleek green hair and a long nose, lowered his cup from his lips to speak "You know Scotty, you seem to forget who the General around here is, isn't that right Jack?" He said, but Jack only gave a cocky smile, and sipped a cup of tea that had been boiling over the fire.

"SQUEEE!" A purple specter, her body shaped like a woman, drew herself from the ground and wrapped around Jack, blushing.

"I love it SOOOO much when you play it cool like this." She said, leaning in close to Jack's face.

"Vivian, you must really watch that little heart of yours, ma petite chou fleur," Jack said in a French accent, and she realized she had the wrong Jack, as Espion reformed in front of her.

"S-sorry," She blushed and uncoiled her long tail from his body. Across the fire, a lanky Troll spat on the fire.

"Bah, I be workin' wit' amateurs. That little ghosty-girl couldn't assassinate fly wit' a bug zapper" He said, pulling the ragged shawl that covered his body a little tighter.

" Zul'jin, please," Jack said harshly "Let us not forget how you were when the Rebels saved you, how you had been defeated." This silenced the Troll, who stared into the fire, and with his right hand felt the nub that was once his left.

"So, Hammer Squad, I guess you guys can drink all you want, considering how we won't be needing you tonight," Kurtis, the man in the lab coat remarked.

"Hah! I don't need yer permission boyo," The Scotsman laughed, a soldier sitting beside him, clad in heavy armor, tapped him on the shoulder

"Hey, you should probably lay off that stuff, I mean, you don't wanna get too drunk for the mission." She cautioned.

"Drunk, HAH! If I ain't drunk I'm hungover, and If I ain't hungover I'm drunk, ain't that right boys?" He raised his bottle and a few soldiers behind him cheered. As they did, Jack stood and grabbed the flag sitting beside him, and without flinching placed his hands in the flames to plant the flag in the center of the fire. As it crumbled to ash he shouted to the squads, and to every soldier present

"Rebels, tonight Obsidian falls!"

* * *

Hah, well. Normally now is when I'd tell you something witty, but instead my Friend K!llgore, who is helping me create some lore for the One World universe, would like to say something to our fans:

_My armor is heavy, my shield has bent, and after all these months I've spent, I must fight on, I must defend, my life for those who'd see my end_.

Ayup, that was it. Also he's the WoW guy, so any characters/settings/anything from World Of Warcraft is his idea. Along with many other ideas, like the compressing Earth theory and the mana adhearing to water molecules theory.


	5. Flippy's Plan in Action

**Author's Note**

Okay, I'm gonna be honest with y'all, this story is very important to me, so I'm going to be shifting all my effort to it. That means I won't be updating HTF: The musical and Uncanny HTF Showdown in a little while.(Yes, I WAS going to add a new chapter. Giggles vs L&S, but that's not happening for a while now)

So without further ado

**One World**

Obsidian Inc was not simply confined to its maze like factory, which resembled a fortress above anything else. In fact, it stretched through most of the forest area, where numerous quarries and mine shafts, each guarded by a platoon of roving Jackbots. But these robots, however well built they may have been, were easily crushed by the 1st's roving ground troops. That was the grand plan for toppling Obsidian, over the weeks preceding the final raid, the supply lines of minerals, especially the obsidian mines, was slowly cut off. The only thing the rebels left alone was the food supply truck that moved constantly to the factory. Odd, considering how few humans were actually employed at Obsidian. The enormous factory was practically self-maintained, between the robots and the machines that produced them. Few people were brought in for security management, maintenance and in Spicer's case, development of new models. But, regardless of why so many food supply trucks were brought in each day,

"At least I don't have to walk anymore…" Reece muttered under the steel facemask they had scavenged off of a fallen Jackbot. With a propeller blade from Jack's throne cut down, reinforced and sharpened, he sprinted up to the truck, rumbling slowly through the woodland path and plunged the blade into the truck, and slowly climbed to the top, resting for a moment. From the copper plate on his chest, also "requisitioned" from another fallen robot, he pulled a small communication device lifted his mask to speak.

"Flippy, I'm on the truck inbound to Obsidian. Hopefully no one will notice the kid wearing Jackbot armor, and I won't have to break any skulls" he joked.

The transmitter buzzed back, "Stay focused. We're not here to a start a fight, only get our soldier back. The robots in there simply won't attack you because of the armor. They're not trained to recognize anything but uniforms, just don't do anything suspicious."

"What happens when I run into a guard?"

"You won't, but if you do, then you've got a gun. Remember, we're right behind you." The transmitter buzzed for a few seconds and clicked off. Reece shook his head and pressed his body against the truck, digging the propeller blade back down to get a stronger grip on the roof. The truck had just cleared the heavily wooded area and began to pick up speed. The mountains were up ahead, lying at the base of which was one of the largest obsidian mines the Empire owned.

It was also the site of the factory; Reece knew it was near before they had arrived, because of the unsettling rumbling of the earth, and the whirrs of machinery that could be heard from a good mile away. The truck drove near the gates and he slide down onto the side, waiting for it to pass in, and when it did he fell to the rocky ground, and sprinted around the darkened side of the factory. A few dim lights let him know he was close, and drew the pistol that his teammates had hastily attached a silencer. But, when he came to the door, the specified location he found what remained of the guard he was supposed to kill.

Impaled through the chest with an enormous blade, some pitiful fool was murdered before he could call for help, one of his hands clutched the radio at his belt in rigor mortis.

"Jesus," He pulled the transceiver out, "Flippy, are you there. Someone's killed the guard at the entry point, course of action?" He waited, and then it called back.

"Continue as planned, a distraction is good. You might just make it out alive."

"Man, you make it sound like it's gonna be easy…" His tone was grim, he pushed open the small door, (it's lock broken by whomever had arrived first), and stepped inside. Oddly enough, despite its grey concrete walls the inside of Obsidian was as technologically advanced as one would believe. It's walls were a metallic chrome-like substance, blue streaking lights lined it's sides. Above was a glass ceiling, in which numerous gears, pistons and pipes could be seen grinding and belching flames.

"God, crazy place.." Reece walked, staring at the ceiling until something caught his foot. He fell forward, the armor pounding heavily against his chest, and was dragged across the metal ground into a darkened alcove. He was blind, the darkened helmet prevented him from seeing anything. A muscular hand pressed hard against his shoulder, pinning him to the wall behind him.

"C'mon woman, just let me punch a hole in da damn thing!" A gruff voice, sounding Jamaican in its accent.

"Hold on Zul, you know how these guard bots work, kill one and it sends a pulse out to the others, now let's see here." A flame suddenly illuminated Reece's sight and he felt something wrap around his neck, like a snake made of jelly. He could see his captors properly now, a greenish troll and a strange, ghost-like woman. The troll was not too odd, save for his missing left arm and flashy purple tunic covering his face, but the woman was a sight.

She had a human figure, but she seemed more of a silhouette of a person. Her body was purple and ghost like, her features seemed to be dulled down to a tiny smile and two blushing cheeks, her eyes weren't visible through her pink hair, topped with a red and white striped witch's hat. Her hands were like that of a noblewoman, long and slender, tipped with white from the elegant gloves she wore. The flame was ignited on her finger tip, clearly she was a spellcaster of some sort.

Reece began to struggle, but he couldn't speak, due to the shadowy tendril around his neck and his own mask stifling his breath.

"Now hold still sparky, I just need to find your 'Off-switch'" She said, Her hand becoming intangible. She reached inside of his chest, feeling around in his organs for God knows what. Reece's vision swam, he felt like he was going to puke.

Suddenly, the ghostly hand inside of him retracted, and he collapsed face first. "Zul, He isn't a Jackbot!"

"Great, can I kill 'em den?" Zul held his arm blade up, poking the collapsed boy. Reece pulled himself up and slowly removed his helmet, his vision still blurred. The girl asked him,

"Who are you, friend or foe of the rebellion?"

"My name is Captain Reece Vallo, leader of the 37th scavenging unit of the rebellion."

Zul became angry with him "And what are you doing here? The 1st Ground Force is performing a mission, we can't have you running around mucking things up!"

He staggered a little, but caught a second wind, "I'm here on a rescue mission of one of our soldiers, serial number XJ9, given name Jenny." Then, just when Reece seemed to finally feel stable, he doubled over and started puking.

"Oops, guess I got a little friendly with his innards," The girl covered her mouth, feeling a little sick herself, "Well, we're with the rebellion fella, and you need to get out of here immediately, we're set to destroy Obsidian before sun-up."

"What?" Reece pulled himself up, "But, you guys are gonna get her out of here right? I mean, you're the rebellion."

"Listen kid, we ain't 'ere ta 'elp you rescue ya girlfriend, now get out of here before you," He cut himself off at the sound of footsteps.

"I heard something, everyone regroup over here!" A voice, human at least, accompanied by several footsteps headed towards them.

"God damnit, Vivian, fight or flight?" Zul asked, drawing his balde.

"I can hide us, everyone group together," Vivian suggested, but Reece was already leaning out of the shadows,

"Four guys, with stun sticks, we can take 'em!" He gripped the tape wrapped handle of his bat.

"Why in da hell would you fight?"

"Because then you guys owe me, and I'm not leaving my solider behind. On the count of three…"

"Aw hell, why not. I been achin' ta stab sometin'"

"One...Two....Three!"

...

Meanwhile, high on a rocky hill in the woods, Flippy was surveying the area from the top of the truck. He took the binoculars from his eyes and jumped down, casually apporaching the driver's window.

"Coop, I think we're not alone in Obsidian."

"Well, duh, why do you think we're hiding?" Coop said, too busy playing with the truck's radio to realize what he was saying.

"I mean other rebels. Reece just contacted me and said someone disabled the guards there." Coop pulled his hands from the dial,

"You don't think someone else is out there?"

"We should give it a shot." Flippy jumped in the passenger seat, "Just bring us around the area and hopefully we'll find someone." Flaky, in the back of the truck became concerned,

"We're, leaving Jenny and Reece?"

"No Flakes, we're finding backup."

* * *

Well, that took longer than expected, mainly just because I'm a lazy S.O.B , it wasn't because I was busy or anything. But I will try to update more often, so remember to review!


	6. Divided Against Themselves

**Author's Note**

I feel like… I've done this before, probably because I'm writing this story twice. One World was my first attempt at Fanfiction, and I've already written (on paper) the first two books. Right now I'm just re-writing what I previously wrote, and adding a bit of lore to it to make it more complete. Well, I guess I'm just wasting your time telling you folks this again, so let's get the story rolling.

**One World**

"You really don't belong here, lounging about in my labs," Spicer said, drawing a scowl across his face.

"Jack my boy; do you really think I care?" His guest slid his hand across the metal walls playfully, smiling as he walked down the rows of machinery, tapping his cane along the floor. He was an older man, probably in his early fifties, dressed in a black suit. His snow white hair was tied back behind his head, and he had an air of dangerous sophistication of him, like a millionaire who murdered his colleagues for fun. "It's not my fault I regulate political affairs, the world's easiest department in the empire, and have free time to monitor the works of others. And besides, my funding has supported your work for quite a long time. I belong here as much as you do."

"Well, you came here for a reason, didn't you?" Spicer sat down near a desk and picked up a small device, tinkering with it as he spoke, "And don't say it's because you were worried about me, because I know you could care less."

He let out a small chuckle, brushing the shoulders of his fine black suit. "I was only concerned about the weapons, you received them did you not?"

"Yes, but with the ghost boy gone I don't see why you need them, they're only a danger to you."

"Exactly, so you keep them safe. I can't be bothered with all of that. Besides, with the witch and your monk friends gone, I see no need for you to still find those magic trinkets of yours."

"I don't like to take risks, besides," Jack stood, putting down the device. His expression was calmed, as if he was in reflection, and he stared off into space. "It brings back memories, Vlad."

Vlad held his chin and laughed, shaking his head, "Jack, I never fancied you a sentimental man, how quaint! Could you honestly say you miss those twerps after all they put you through?"

But before Jack could answer, the doors of the laboratory swung open. Two men, dressed in the black uniform of the Empire approached them, kneeling with their heads down.

"Sir," One began, "Our defenses have been breached, multiple personnel are either KIA or wounded. Security reports indicate we're facing numerous segmented groups, should we mobilize the entire force?"

Vlad answered, calmly "Oh no, that would be far too much. I'm sure my escorts have caught wind of this, have they not?"

"Tobe and Vega? I'm sorry sir, but I haven't passed this message onto either of them yet."

"You wouldn't need to, without a doubt they've found out about this and are after the rats. Send the usual Jackbot patrol out in the factory, but take every organic troop we've got and send them out into the forest, a complete five mile sweep, make sure you're well armed."

"Excuse me?" Spicer would not be usurped in his own factory, "This isn't your base."

"And these aren't your troops, my soldiers my command, the only ones that obey you are programmed to do so."

"You're getting mighty superior around here Masters, don't forget you're still on the same level as Me, Vulcanus and Wesker . We were all chosen by the Eternal Lord."

"And we will each die by the Eternal Lord. But that holds no baring now, don't you realize what I'm trying to accomplish? The rebels wouldn't dare launch an attack like this without backup. Sure, destroying our supply lines was a bold move, but attacking our center of command. The 1st must be here, no scouting party would dare launch such an attack."

"You'd better be right Masters; this isn't a time to be fooling around."

"If I'm wrong, then it's already been decided. You should know that by now, you were told the same thing as me." And with that Spicer left the lab, his anger portrayed in his pace. But, before he was gone, Vlad called after him,

"Where are you going?"

"You're wrong, I know exactly who would attack us, and it's to steal something from us."

"What would someone risk their life to take from us?"

"My new daughter."

…

Rapid footsteps pounded the metal floor, down one hallway then into another, Jack and the swordsman sprinted in search of their target. Close behind them were the guards, along with a few Jackbots.

"Damnit, who compromised our position?" Zoro, the swordsman said between breaths.

"Stay calm Zoro, we just need a place to plant the explosives, and then we can escape." Jack responded coolly, gazing up into the glass ceiling, he noticed the massive gears above him. "If our reconnaissance was correct, there should be a large furnace above us, if we detonate it there we should be able to take out a large portion of the factory."

"Well, why don't we just take out our pursuit to make this a little easier on us?" Zoro pointed behind him,

"No, I promised myself tonight I wouldn't stain my blade with blood, there were supposed to be no humans here." They rounded a corner, and stopped in their tracks. Standing in front of them were two men. The first, clad in blue shinobi robes stepped forward. His eyes had a crossed set of scars behind them, and even though he wore a face mask, one could easily see an arrogant grin behind it.

"I'm sorry general, but I think you'll find that that's going to be impossible," He said, placing his hand on one of the swords sheathed in his belt.

"Who the hell do you think you are, ninja?" Zoro clenched his own blades defiantly.

"I am insulted, you dare tread in Empire grounds and not know the identity of Tobe, the scourge of Sooga village?"

The other chuckled a little, holding his chin and shaking his head at something. He was a well built, slender man, who wore nothing to cover his chest, wearing only a loose pair of martial artist's pants, and an odd white mask that obscured everything but his eyes. He walked closer, arms extended, and the laugh became wild, erratic even. Then without warning, he whipped around and pointed a finger at his colleague.

"Tobe, You imbecile!" He shouted, his tone fiery. "You have just told our enemies who you are! Vlad will have us killed if we don't bring him their heads immediately!"

The ninja drew his blades and held them up to his own ally, "Shut up Vega! It doesn't matter either way, we'll just kill them!"

"And you told them my name! Excellent work you buffoon!" A screaming match erupted between the two, prompting Jack to turn to Zoro.

"Quickly, while they are distracted, you go plant the bomb, I'll keep them from following."

"No way General, your life comes before mine. Besides, I can handle these two." He drew two of his three swords, "Now go, you're running out of time."

Jack nodded silently, and leapt in one powerful bound through the glass ceiling and into the darkened maze of machinery above. Of course, the two assassin's couldn't help but notice this.

"Vega, you go after the samurai! I'll handle the three swordsman." Vega nodded and leapt up, bouncing off the wall and up into the hole Jack had just made. Tobe crossed his blades and faced Zoro, who smiled confidently, placing his third sword in his mouth and assuming a fighting stance.

…

_Facial Identification complete, welcome back General Spicer._

Spicer stood, tapping his foot as the electronic lock slid open. He shook his head silently and entered the dim office. Stepping inside, the lights flicked on immediately, and he calmly approached a computer laid out on a desk in the far end of the room. Tapping a few keys he reached a page that demanded a seventeen hundred digit access code, and reached into his pocket. In his palm he held a gold pocket watch, and with a flick of his thumb he unclasped it, and retrieved a small device from within it. Placing the device inside the computer, it began to scan and decode the passcode. As he waited, Jack produced a cigarette case from his coat and ignited one in his mouth, taking a deep inhale. As he exhaled, the smoke surrounded his body, until it shrouded him completely, and within seconds it cleared to reveal Espion, who couldn't help but smile at his work. After all, he was one of the best spies in the world.

In moments, the computer's files were all on display, and with a simple click they began to print and slide out of the side of the machine.

"Mon Dieu, it's worse than I thought." He pulled a small camera out and clicked a few photos of the files, and pressed his ear, speaking aloud. "Vivian, meet me by the database room, I need you to hold onto documents" Then, pulling the cigarette case once again from his pocket, he placed another cigarette in his mouth and the smoke engulfed him only to reveal a standard Obsidian security guard, who exited the file room, leaving nothing behind but a metallic box that had several wires running to the computer, which was now sparking violently.

"Whoops, did I do that? Spy sappin' your mainframe" He said with a chuckle, striding coolly down the halls, cigarette in hand.

* * *

So, am I good or what? Okay, you're right, I just need to figure out what exactly I meant by "Or what"

And for those of you wondering, Espion is the Spy from TF2, I just chose to call him Espion because calling him "The Spy" All the time seemed weird, and Espion is the French word for spy.

See Y'all next time!


	7. The Celestian Conference

**Author's Note**

Man, I've gotten lazy. It's not like I'm even busy lately, I've just been too lazy to update anything. I'm sorry, I'll get back to work, I owe it to my readers….

**One World**

Panting, tired and weary Reece sprinted through the steel corridors desperately following the last words before Vivian told him to run.

"_You're not here do die, let us fight. I don't know where your friend is, but we've done a few intel runs and we know there's a robotics lab near the center.."_

But that's all he heard out of her, he ran the second he got the chance. He didn't escape without a few wounds, the guards had attempted to chase him, but he kept running. He needed to find Jenny, he didn't lose her before, and he wouldn't lose her now. The cold, empty walls of the factory made his mind drift, and then he began to remember, remember five years ago.

…

"Mr. V? This way sir, the award ceremony is already in progress." A guard motioned for Reece to follow him down the lavish hallway. It was the Celestian Heroism Awards, he was attending as a political figure, though he hardly held any power. But, he was still one of the two, one of the believers that made this amazing world.

Celestia was a perfect example of the great beauty the Merge brought about the world. It was as close to heaven as any living being could reach, Celestia was the home world of angels. Science failed many who had attempted to crack the code behind the clouds that held Celestia aloft, dense as iron yet light as air, and even more so it's inhabitants. Winged humanoids that lived for centuries, people of the Old Earth could only begin to fathom their very existence, let alone their innate magical abilities.

Celestia, as it was after the Merge was a political focal point, the kingdom in the clouds served as not only a haven for the many united nations, but for the world's united species. Of course there was prejudice in even the most utopist of worlds, but the Celestians welcomed all beings, whom they believed to be children of God. Like the guard, as Reece noticed. He was an odd type of anthropomorphic wolf, dressed in a suit. A small handheld laser was holstered at his waist, and though he had already turned Reece had noticed an eye patch.

"In this way, and try to be quiet, Vlad's giving a speech." He said, opening the door for him. Reece scanned the dim room, finding Etienne, his old friend, seated at a long table with many other influential leaders . Etienne was a heavy set man, of his age. He had a darker complexion then him, African in his origin, and was also dressed in a suit.

"Etienne, did I miss anything?" Reece sat beside him, speaking in a whisper to avoid anyone noticing him.

"Nothing, Vlad's just giving some longwinded speech to make the crowds smile, but that's politics." He laughed, sipping a cup of seltzer that had been placed before him. Reaching under his coat, he pulled a small electronic device, an MP3 player of sorts and tapped it, the music flowing into his earpiece. " Have you heard the new daft punk single, I have to say they've become even better now that they are robots." He offered Reece another earpiece, but he declined. As Etienne hummed quietly, Reece glanced to Vlad, standing at a podium and addressing attendees,

"Why'd they even need to drag me up here anyway? Not like I'm a hero or anything."

"Neither am I, but we've created something wonderful."

"You did, I'm just your friend." Reece was trying to avoid him, but his warm smile caught his eye again.

"C'mon now, you were the inspiration, and my motivation. Now lighten up, I heard Celestian cuisine is incredible, and who knows, you might even run into a nice girl."

"You know I'm only looking for one girl." Reece said, letting a lecherous smile slide across his face. Etienne stared at him for a moment, and groaned, "My god, seriously, Her? Are you ever going to get over that little fantasy?"

"Fifteen years since I fell in love with her," Reece smiled, jokingly, but completely serious, "And nothing's a fantasy anymore."

"Reece, you've got a better chance of entering the M-zone then meeting her, and the combination of all our sciences hasn't gotten us there yet."

"What is the M-Zone anyway, why do you always bring it up?"

Etienne groaned, taking another gulp of seltzer. "I wish you'd listen to me for once. The M-zone is a powerful force of gravity, just outside our atmosphere. It's messed up our seasons, extending winter by about a month and a half, and made the days about one hour and twelve minutes longer. But the most incredible thing is that deep space telescopes have reported movement within it, but nothing following any patterns we've ever seen. Which can mean only one thing, life. Can't you see? Life is out there, a second world unbeknownst to us."

Much to Etienne's anger(Though not his surprise) Reece was drifting in and out, as usual, and instead turned his attention to the woman who was stepping up to take Vlad's place at the podium. She was a beautiful woman, dressed in a flowing pink dress. Vlad announced her as she brushed her blonde hair aside and waved to the crowd.

" And now if we can welcome one of our esteemed guests, the Royal Princess Peach Toadstool!" He said, stepping aside, the guests cheered and whistled at her, making her blush a little before she tapped the microphone to begin.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, ambassadors and heroes, I am here to bestow a great honor upon a very important individual in our ever expanding society. Two years ago, when the First Celestian conference was held to create the Society for The Ethical Treatment of All, or STETA, we had decided that people who made great strides in protecting our people, be they human or not, Organic or Synthetic, shall be honored here in the Seraphic Sanctuary, a holy place to all Celestians." She took a brief pause to examine the statue behind her, a tall man dressed in white robes stood, arms extended, eight angelic wings protruding from his back.

"And before the eyes of the Seraph, leader of Celestia, and all leaders of the world this award shall honor this person tonight, a person who has reminded us that Synthetic beings cannot be distinguished from ourselves. Please, would Dr. Nora Wakeman, and her daughter Jenny come to the podium to accept this award."

The crowd became uproarious, cheers spouted from every direction, Reece noticed Etienne was slapping his large hands together happily, cheering, and so Reece began to clap and shout himself. Dr. Wakeman was a famous robotic's expert, who many had known from her crusades as a Synthetic rights activist who had fought for the freedoms of all inorganic beings, Cyborgs, Robots, and Androids. Her "daughter" Jenny was her crowning achievement, not only an incredible replica of a Human girl, but a heroic crusader who herself had engaged in many of the small battles that followed the first two years after the merge, and lent a hand in uniting all of Neo-Terra. Her "Mother" Dr. Wakeman stepped up to the podium and began her own speech,

"People of the Celestian Council, I wish I could thank you for this award, but I have truly not yet earned it. Still to this day, though you have recognized my work as justice, people across Neo-Terra continue to believe that another living being is inferior to them, be it organic or Sythetic. As you know the people calling themselves, "Humans for the Old World" believe even me, a fellow human to be inferior because they claim that this is their world. But like it or not, we are here to stay."

The crowd cheered, some threw their fists in the air, even Reece was becoming entranced in her charismatic words. For an older woman(She seemed in her late fifties, maybe sixties), she spoke with the vigor of a congressman half her age.

"Now I ask you, are you going to die out? Are you going to let this golden age that was created by, in my humble opinion, what may be the universe's two greatest Pioneers die out because we're not accepted? I say no! And I thank you, because this, all of you here shows the world we are just as human, we are just as civilized, and we are just as much equal to anyone who came before and anyone who will come after!" And with that, she lowered her head, and faced Peach, who was holding a golden medal. She placed it around her neck, and smiled warmly, at both her and her robotic daughter. Jenny, Reece had remembered, was shining, her body was still like new, she had gotten regular repairs from her Mother, and was never involved in messy battles like the rebellion faced so often. Just as Peach was stepping up to the podium, a loud roaring could be heard.

"Up there! LOOK!" A member of the crowd pointed to one of the Many of the extravagant glass windows of the sanctuary. An enormous battleship loomed beside them, a cannon rotated and fired, sending many of the people nearby sprawling. Shellshock blinded Reece and what happened next was a blurr

"_Get down! Reece, Get down!_

Etienne had called to him, but Reece ran, he heard a scream and saw that their bodyguard had shot his friend, and was aiming the beam at Reece when Vlad struck him from behind

"_Get everyone we have on a perimeter, now! Seal the exits!"_

Reece covered his eyes as another blast went off, and fell to the ground. He looked down and saw Jenny, sprawled across the ground. Her expression was lifeless, and he realized that an explosion had singed and bruised her body, he crawled over to her, not truly knowing why he was trying to rescue her.

"_Escape, you're running out of time!"_

A voice, but one that he was certain was inside his head, he had never heard it before, beckoned him. He pulled Jenny's hand, lifting her up. And then, nothing else could be remembered. He was found the next day with Jenny, on the city streets of Celestia. And was told of the start of the war by Vlad himself, and he told him that no one had survived the Celestian Conference. Reece felt guilty, and nearly slipped into a deep depression, until he realized that he needed to fight, even if just for his own sanity.

But he swore he'd never lose Jenny, because then he'd be the only one left.

…

He rested, he had been running for at least twenty minutes, he realized he must be near the center of the factory. The nearest door to him was heavy, electric locked , so he decided he'd have to try it. He pulled a small pistol from his pocket and shot the electric lock. It sparked, the doors flew open, and Reece felt a terrible mix of Relief, and horror.

Lined up in neat little rows were what appeared to be Jenny, all painted bright red and were sleeping, for now. They had done it, they were using her for some kind of mass production. He walked down the rows of clones, running his fingers along their cold heartless faces, until he found Jenny. She was lying on a machine that was almost like a casket, her body sealed in glass with wires running all along it. The wires were hooked to enormous vats on either side of her, a strange, viscous gren fluid ran through them. He tried to at her, but even though he body was inert, her expression was pained. There was no time; he had to escape with her. Seeing no way to release the glass chamber, he readied his bat to strike the glass prison. He struck it once, but even with all his strength, he could only chip it.

"Fuck, some kind of plexiglass…" He raised the bat again, to strike before,

"You really have no manners do you?" He heard that disgusting voice again, he turned and jack was there, reaching out to one of the Jenny bots and taping coolly on her back. Her eyes flared open, a vicious red glow emanated from them.

"JS-24, Jenny Spicer model 24, I'd like you to meet her." He stifled his laughter, "24, honey, please do your daddy a favor and introduce yourself"

The "girl" growled, and held her arm up, a small gun barrel extended from her arm."Check my firearms?"

"Yes, don't want you hurting your sisters now, do we?" Jack laughed, and 24 retracted the gun, instead a blade folded out from her other arm, and she began walking forward.

Reece struck the glass chamber again, and again while darting his eyes between the robot and the girl he was trying to save. Finally, he broke some of the glass, but he couldn't free Jenny through the small facture. He pulled the pistol on the robot and fired, the rounds easily deflected off her cold metal body. She drew ever closer, Reece panicked, and turned to the vats above him. He fired at one of them, cracking it's glass. Fluid began to leak from it, but before he could do anything else, a sharp pain ripped at him, and he turned to find an enormous blade protruding from his right shoulder. He screamed, and swung the bat In his left hand to knock away the robot, and as a result the blade tore its own exit out of the right side of his body, leaving an enormous bloody gash. He clenched his own shoulder in pain, but realizing that the robot was steadying herself, he let out another burst of strength, screaming in pain and threw the bat at the tank, causing to crack and the green fluids within it spilled out.

The force of it, coupled with the blood loss and the excruciating pain was too much for Reece, and he blacked out before he could even see if Jenny had been freed from his last ditch efforts

* * *

Urgh, sleep, need, now. Goodnight everyone!


	8. First Clash

**Author's Note**

Alright, enough stalling, this story is my masterpiece and it will live up to everyone's expectations! Unless they have really low expectations, because then it won't be very good.  
So I suppose it'll be better than your expectations!

Actually that sounds kinda arrogant. I'll just make it a good story and-

Everyone: QUIT STALLING!

EEK! Okay!

**One World**

Jack's wooden sandals pounded the floors of the dark metal maze, gears whirring and cogs pounding against each other. The furnace a few yards off gave away the only light, an orangish glow. The fiery heat he felt from it made him sweat, but it served its purpose. Brushing the sweat from his face with a quick swipe of his hand, he sprinted along the mechanisms following the heat as if it were a beacon. Jack felt his coat to make sure it was there, the next part of the plan, when he heard that same hysterical laughter.

"General, why do you run from me?" He slowed his pace at the sound of that same voice, the assassin from before; of course he had followed him. Walking carefully, he listened intently for Vega to speak again.

"You're afraid samurai, I can tell. Mice flee from cats, and I am the prince of cats." Jack felt the wind run against his skin and dove to one side, Vega had leapt from the shadows around him to strike, but only tore the cloth of his robes with the slender claws attached to his arm. When Jack dove out of his view, Vega rolled to a stop, landing on the balls of his feet. He crouched, and as Jack drew his sword to strike he flipped backwards, back into the shadows before he could be harmed.

"I flee?" Jack slowly sheathed his sword, and began walking towards the furnace again. He spoke loudly so Vega could hear him, "If I am the coward why do you strike from the shadows, and flee before I can attack?"

Even in the darkness, a master such as Jack could easily predict movements, Vega was circling him in the heated chamber and he knew without seeing it. It was a matter of playing his mind, he wasn't fast enough to keep up, so

"So face me!" He shouted, still walking slowly, his eyes fixated on the dull orange glow of the furnace. "You are no warrior, merely an assassin; any coward could be an assassin."

"Shut up and die, you bastard!" Vega leapt from the shadows, his rage boiling his blood. He could conceal himself no longer in the presence of a mudslinging idiot, who had no idea how powerful he truly was, or so Vega believed. He struck quickly, with a series of slashes Jack nimbly dodging with each whipping blow. But Vega was still too fast, and the claw drew blood from Jack's cheek before he pushed away with a quick kick to Vega's chest. The assassin skidded to a stop, dragging his claw against the metal floor to slow himself. The sparks illuminated Vega's face for Jack, and suddenly he smiled with pride, saying calmly.

"So, who are you, and why do you conceal your face?"

Vega stood from his crouch, and crossed his arms, laughing, "Respect, just as I deserve! I will satisfy your curiosity, nameless samurai. That's right, I've heard of you as well, "Jack". I am Vega, the most beautiful and agile assassin in the world, the right hand man of Vlad Master's political reign. And you have the honor of dying by my hand, General Jack."

It was no lie, Vega had assisted in many famous political assassinations the led to Vlad's position in the world government, only were these murders were revealed after the attack on Celestia, and by then it was too late.

But Jack's smile didn't fade, and Vega grew angry, "What's wrong with you? Are you too ignorant to know fear?"

"Why do you hide your face behind a mask, if you are truly beautiful?"

Vega laughed again, but it was more nervous this time, almost frightened, "I am far too beautiful to risk harming my face, the mask protects my beauty, of course. Are you truly that dense?"

"Of course, I apologize, then you may put the mask back on, if you wish." And Jack threw the white facemask on the ground before Vega, who's skin grew cold as he saw it. He felt his own face in shock and realized the mask had been stolen in his last clash.

"That's, that's impossible, you had no time to" But before he could finish, Jack drew his blade, startling Vega, he leapt back again to avoid a strike, but instead, Jack held the blade up to his own face and drew his fingers along the flat edges near the end of the curved blade. He flicked his fingers at Vega, and blood splattered across the floor in front of him. Vega grew cold as a trickle of hot blood ran down his face. Jack had not only stolen his mask, but struck him in the mere seconds that he was dodging his attacks in.

"You, you bastard! You're tricking me, there's no way. I'll- I'll murder you!" He lunged at Jack with the razor-edged claws extended, as a tiger would pounce upon a gazelle. But Jack was still ahead of him, and sidestepped the reckless attack. Vega's strike was so powerful that it tore into the steel of the machine he had struck, and with a grunt he withdrew the claw from the machine and recoiled in agony as white-hot steam exploded from the machine. He screamed, clutching his face in pain.

The machine he had pierced was the enormous furnace of the factory and in his blind rage Vega had struck it and the scalding heat that burst forth burned his face and scarred him permanently. His beautiful face, ruined.

Vega's entire life was his beauty, and now it was destroyed in one fell swoop. Years of being an idol of beauty and power were gone, his mind collapsed under the weight of the shock, and he fell to his knees, gripping his face, ignoring the pain it brought to even touch it. Through his burnt and blurry eyes he could still see Jack standing before him, his hand extended as if to help him stand.

"You," He clutched his face with one hand, his vision blurred and eyes tearing, but he could still see the samurai, "You did this to me! You've ruined me!" Vega swung the claw on his hand and cut Jack's outstretched hand. Jack merely stepped back, he felt the hostility in his foe, but he also felt his fear.

"You've destroyed me, I'm a freak!" Vega slashed again, and Jack leapt back to avoid the strike, but Vega suddenly turned and grabbed at the metal of the furnace, tearing at it with his bare hands. The skin on his palms was burned and torn off, but he seemed to ignore it, like a mindless beast.

"Freaks don't deserve to live, they should be exterminated!" He gazed into the fire of the furnace, ready to throw his body to the flames, "I'll burn, and my beautiful body shall never be seen like this, after all you've done to me! I will be reborn in the flames." He began to lower his body over the metal chamber, when his body was impaled from behind, Jack's sword protruded from his chest, through his heart.

"I won't let you suffer like that. You'll die peacefully, and find peace in the next world." Jack spoke softly as he pulled the sword from Vega's body. He twitched for a few seconds before falling to his knees, and then tumbling into the flames, without pain.

Jack kneeled before the furnace, placing one hand over his heart. The hand slowly moved to the inner folds of his robe, from which he retrieved a small device, a high powered, timed explosive. He placed it by the furnace and tapped the controls. It's electronic timer, began to flash it's countdown, fourty-five minutes and counting.

With the bomb activated, Jack began back to the main factory, leaving behind the painful sight of what was once Vega.

…

"Come in, come in, Espion, can you read me?"

"Please, call me, Zee spy." Espion chuckled, striding down the hallway in full disguise. Even a trained soldier couldn't tell Espion apart from his own friend. He was a, no, _the_ master of disguise.

"The bombs have been planted, mine and Zorro's, though the ninja he had engaged managed to escape, so be on guard."

"But of course, I am always prepared."

"So I can assume you have the files?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid it's far worse than we feared. We'll discuss it later, I've sent Vivian out with some copies. "

"Alright, but we've got to get those two soldiers out of here, we can't demolish the factory with our men in here."

"Man sir, there's only one man. The other is a girl, so to speak."

"Your information is good as always, but do you know who they are?"

"Our old friends, Reece and Jenny, but if my information is completely correct, as it always is, we must find the two immediately, or-"

Espion stopped himself short, realizing footsteps were coming his way. He removed the earpiece and pocketed it, just in case, and pulled the rifle from his back to hold in an official manner. He rounded the corner slowly, and found himself only a few paces away with what could only be another Empire higher-up.

Dressed in a black suit, he stood at least six feet tall. A blond haired man, his skin was oddly pale, and he stared down at the soldier before him through dark sunglasses. The man's icy stare even penetrated Espion's cool demeanor, and he stuttered for a second before saluting.

"What are you doing here, soldier? The other's have been dispatched," The man said, his tone emotionless.

"I was behind sir, to make sure everyone else was scrambled, but I need to get moving sir, the rest of the troops are probably ahead of me." Espion's voice was even different in the disguise, gruff-sounding to match his new outfit.

The man stared for a few seconds, and turned to head down the opposite hall, "Of course, you should get going then, soldier." He said without turning. Espion quietly drew the butterfly knife from his back pocket, flicking it with near-silent wrist movements into place. With machine precision he readied the blade for a lethal stab to the vertebrae, but before he could strike the man reached behind and grabbed Espion's arm.

"I do hate the smell of Tobacco smoke, you know that?" The man gritted his teeth and threw the spy against the steel walls. Espion slid to the floor, momentarily dazed, before he pulled a revolver out to fight.

The bullets exploded from the chamber, but they had no effect on the man. He grabbed Espion's wrist with one hand and his neck with the other, sliding him back up against the cold steel wall.

"Who the hell are you?" Espion said, as the man pressed against his throat. His grip was a steel vice; it was all he could do to stay conscious.

"It doesn't matter who I am, all that matters is who I am here for, the Eternal lord."

Espion strained a laugh through his deathly hold, "The Eternal Lord? You're going to kill me, why do you have to feed me the same bullshit you do to the Empire's slaves?"

The grip became tighter, "You don't know what you're talking about spy, the Eternal Lord is all there ever is and will be. You are nothing to him but a puppet, even this situation now was predetermined by him, the outcome was undoubtable."

"What," He gasped for air, trying to ration what life he had left, "What are you talking about? There's no way, even if there is an Eternal Lord then why would he talk to you? Who are you to speak with god?" He screamed in pain, a deep heat penetrated his arm. Glancing at his constricted arm, Espion saw it had slumped over; the man has shattered his wrist with one quick motion.

"Who am I? I am Wesker, Albert Wesker. I was chosen as a disciple because I am a superior human being, and I know my destiny was to survive this conflict and murder you because the Eternal Lord still wishes one other person to die."

Through his dying breaths, he muttered the question.

"Who?"

"The man who survived. The man who lived through Celestia." And with that Wesker closed his grip on Espion's throat, so tightly that his body tensed, his head swollen with blood, and finally the man's lethal grip crushed his neck, and he dropped the body, letting it slump lifelessly to the ground.

"Spies, running around taking what isn't theirs. You can't steal from the Eternal Lord, you will always be caught." Wesker said, turning away. With his footsteps growing fainter, a purple shadow emerged from the ground, Vivian had arrived too late.

"Oh, God, Espion." She had seen it all, but when she arrived Espion's fate was already sealed. Her hands trembled as she reached into her fallen comrade's suit, pulling the small envelope free of his body.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." She shook from the pain of seeing him dead, "We won't leave you here.." She said, before sinking into the ground, leaving him alone.

Her mission came first, her friends, as all Rebellion Members must accept, came second.

* * *

I'd honestly have something witty to say right now, but I just really wanna get this chapter up as soon as possible!


	9. The Hammer Squad

**Author's Note**

Okay, I really need to get cracking if I want to make this a serious series, I've been slacking and it shows. I've got it all planned out and everything, I just refine it a bit when I write it down, so there's no excuse why I don't update more!

And if you're wondering why I always give myself these pep talks beforehand, well I just kinda hope I'll end up listening to myself and updating more….

**One World**

Across the way, hidden within the maze of trees and rock walls that dotted the heavily forested area, the Hammer Squad stood at the ready. The Scotsman, as many had called him, was at the center of it. It seemed odd to simply call him, The Scotsman, but he felt no other name was necessary, he even refused a formal title when he was drafted into one of the highest commands on the 1st ground force. But he had done it to mimic his close friend, Jack, another who's true name was lost over the years.

He let out a long exhale, pulling a bottle of whiskey from the cotton pouch on his thick leather belt, and took a deep swig from it. His vision was a bit teetering, but nothing he couldn't handle. The problem, however, lied not in his intoxication, but in his troops. And in the vehicle that was meant to carry them to battle if the need arose.

"So then, we're going nowhere I can assume?" He said to no one in particular, and yet still managed to become angry when no response came. "I said can we get this damned clunker moving or do we just sit here and risk everyone's lives?" A man, dark skinned and dressed in heavy, makeshift armor that seemed to be torn from a tank, stepped forward.

"Sorry, I've only ever ridden in a Derrick, don't know nothing about fixing one." Said Augustus Cole. He was a veteran in many of his world's wars. A similar earth, but locked in a combat with alien like creatures known as the locust that lived beneath the crusts of their hollow planet. But that was all in his past before the merge, all that was left is who he was now, a football player, a local legend, and just bat-shit crazy enough to join up with the Hammer Squad.

"So we're stuck then, huh? Lyons couldn't figure the damn thing out either?"

"Nope, sorry sir, she's one hell of a genius, but not in mechanics. Jim, Tavish, even Mouse took a look at it, but we're soldiers, not engineers."

"Well then, we're fucked ain't we?" He said, brashly.

Cole fished for an answer for a few seconds, not wanting to upset what may be the only man he knew comprised of more muscle than himself, a star football player. He had just opened his mouth, when thankfully Lyons, another of the Hammer Squad, drew her rifle, aiming down into the bushes. The other troops nearby pulled their own armaments, along with Cole and Scotsman, who merely placed a hand on the large claymore strapped to his back.

"Hold, this is the Thirty Seventh" A voice called from the bushes, "This is the Thirty Seventh Scouting party of the Rebellion Ground force. Call sign 'Phoenix'" The voice rattled off it's words, in a straight and to the point manner. The Scotsman raised his hand, to signal the troops to drop their weapons, at least for the moment.

"Step out slowly, all troops you have with you, arms in the air." Lyons said, uniformly. Within a few seconds, two soldiers, a green bear and a heavy set man came from the bushes, their arms raised above their heads. The weapons strapped to their backs were quickly removed by the soldiers nearest them, and the Scotsman stepped forward.

"Name, rank, and why don't you tell me what the hell you think yer doin' out here?" He said. His hand had been taken from the blade, and now his arms were crossed in a manner that exuded power, as if he didn't need a sword to crush these two if they had been Empire aligned.

"Sgt Flippy, sir" Flippy responded, " Second in command, and now the stand in commander of the Thirty Seventh. With me here is Cpl Coop, communications and repair specialist. We were on the move when our squadron was ambushed by General Spicer. A soldier of ours was taken, and we've got a man in the obsidian factory going in after her."

"Who was taken, and who did you send?"

"A robot sir, Serial number XJ9, given name Jenny. Sgt Reece H.R. Valor, current commander of this squadron, has gone in after her.

"Anyone else with you?"

Flippy nodded and whistled twice, Flaky and Homsar emerged close behind. Flaky stepped up to the enormous man and gave a timid salute,

"Pvt Flaky sir, light infantry and scout of the Thirty Seventh."

Her eyes began to wander across the battalion before them, studying each of them cautiously. The first thing that drew her eye was the enormous vehicle that they were all stationed around.

The Derrick, as it was known, was a vehicle as long as a coach bus, and as tall as two. Aside from it's size, the front of it appeared to be the cockpit of a very large truck, with enormous bullet proof windows for the driver. And the back of it was a platform, raised above the cockpit and dotted with several mounted turrets. It was truly a machine of devastation, and a wonder that the Rebels could move it through the forest covertly while her own squad was found in a small convoy.

She looked to The Scotsman; he took up most of her field of view, his bulky form towering above her meek, mouse like self. Behind him was Cole, who was nearly as intimidating, but had a joking smile towards her, as if he found her "Cute". Cute as a puppy, not cute as a young girl, though. Stepping back to let Flippy and the Scotsman speak, she examined the others around her.

Another dark skinned man stood nearby a few crates of ammunition. Dressed in a red shirt, covered in a blackened flak vest he sat staring across the forest, occasionally taking gulps from a bottle he held in hand. Rubbing the wool skull cap that adorned his head, he removed it, and tossed it onto the crates beside him with a wet thud. The hail and rain had stopped, but only a few hours ago, and the night was frigid and damp. He ran his fingers through his curly hair, and turned slowly to Flaky, hardly knowing or caring she was there. When she caught a glimpse of his worn face, she panicked and turned, fearing his anger at her impolite stare. She had not realized until he turned in that brief second the man had only one eye, the other covered in an eye patch.

Trying to get her bearings with the strange new band of soldiers, she stepped back a little, before a voice called to her.

"Hey, little one, c'mere."

She was shocked, but calmed her own nerves quickly as she faced the one beckoning her. Another soldier, clad in worn steel armor and a helmet that encompassed their face was sitting in the dirt, polishing a rifle. Flaky noted it was the same soldier who had first spotted Coop and Flippy, probably very perceptive to have detected them so early. Lyons, the Scotsman had called him.

"Have a seat, I won't bite," The Lyons, motioning to a cloth where a few weapons had been pushed aside to make room. Flaky reluctantly sat across from the steel person before her. A few seconds passed with nothing but the muffled breathing of the soldier and the occasional squeek of the cloth on the cold rifle, before Lyons spoke again.

"Oh, my helmet. I'm sorry, it must be like sitting with a robot for you, isn't it?" He seemed to be apologizing to Flaky, and removed the helmet, carefully placing it aside. All at once Flaky came to realize that she was speaking not to a strong man, but to a woman. She brushed the unwashed, yet beautiful hair from her face and spoke to Flaky softly.

"You seem scared, not accustomed to fighting I suppose?" She asked, setting the gun aside with the rifle.

"No, I can't say I am."

"Flaky, was it?" She asked, and the Porcupine nodded, " Where are you from, I mean, before the merge?"

"A small town, Happy Tree Town, to be exact. A lot of my friends lived there, but nobody knows where the town went after the merge, so we each went our separate ways."

"It sounds like a very peaceful place, I'm sorry that you're here now." But Lyons couldn't be more wrong, Happy Tree Town was far from serene or peaceful, and even in war Flaky had a better chance of living.

"Well, it's not all bad, Flippy's still here." She said, blushing a little. "But it must be tough for you too, I suppose."

"No, not at all really," Lyons said. "I came from an Earth sort of like this one, but my people destroyed that world. Famine and sickness took many people, but I stood to help the remnants of human life along with my father. He's a general here too, but he's in another sector, far off from here."

"What was your world like, was it really that bad?"

"Absolutely, and the worst part is we caused it all to ourselves. Out of all the dimensions this Earth was crafted from, I'm thankful mine was not one of them." But she tried to shift her tone, their atmosphere was depressing enough, "But at least my world made me strong, so I could fight this empire with the best. Speaking of fighting with the best, I suppose this would be a bit easier for you if you knew who you were fighting alongside, huh?" Flaky nodded, and she called towards the rest of her squad. But only one of the few troops came, the others were either too busy or merely didn't hear her. But, the soldiers who did were quite the sight. The soldier approached her and kneeled, he appeared to be a man, dressed in what seemed like a space suit from a fifties space drama. He was muscular, and at his side was a powerful laser blaster, presumably one of the best and most powerful weapons the rebellion could muster.

But his physique and weaponry was not what drew Flaky's eye. Sitting on the man's shoulders, where his head should be was an earthworm, sticking out of the body's neck. She stared in a mix of frightening curiosity before Lyons introduced the 'man'

"Jim, his name is Jim," She said, to break the silence. Flaky blushed when she realized how awkwardly she had been staring at him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Jim, I'm Flaky," She held out her hand, and he stared at her for a few seconds, almost analyzing her. But this passed, and a goofy smile dawned on his face as he took her hand and he shook it briskly.

"Pleased to meet you!" His voice was odd, to say the least. In fact, he sounded outright funny. Flaky giggled a little while he spoke, "Earthworm Jim, special ops unit of the 1st rebellion hammer squad!"

"Very nice to meet you, I'm Flaky, light infantry of the 37th scouting party." She was beginning to finally relax, "If you don't mind, where'd you get the laser? I mean, rebels hardly can get their hands on weapons like that."

"Oh this little beauty?" He laughed and spun the handheld blaster around on finger, before catching it and pointing at Flaky. She jumped a little and he made a tiny 'Pshooo', kicking back his wrist with recoil,  
"It came with the suit. I wasn't always this much, below my neck. Y'see, back when I was just an Earthworm I.." He sat to make himself more comfortable, and continued his tale to the enthralled Flaky.

Scotsman, however, was far from amused with his situation. "So then, not only is our one way to get in action broken," He motioned to the Derrick behind him. "And now we have to baby sit you little kiddies too?"

Coop stepped forward, stifling a laugh as he tried to sound important, "Sir, if you don't mind, I understand this is your mission, but vehicle repairs and operation are my specialty. If I could just take a quick look."

"Listen laddie, you can try, but none of our soldiers had any luck. But if you could even make this junker budge, you'd finally be pulling your weight around here and I might even consider," His staunch attitude and composure came to a quick end through, when he realized that Coop wasn't even in front of him, and the sound of a screwdriver could be heard. He turned to find a fat pair of legs sticking out from under the Derrick, and soon Coop pulled himself free, a smug grin hidden behind the grease on his face.

"And there we are, recalibrated."

"Now, how in the hell did you,"

Coop stood, feeling quite proud of himself, and explained, "The Derrick was unbalanced, it's a highly sophisticated piece of machinery, a failsafe was designed into it to lock it's tires up if the calibration was off. Now what was it you were saying?"

The Scotsman stared in awe, before he clutched his own chest and laughed, "Well I'll be damned! Alright boy, for the night you and your squad are Hammer Squad recruits. Men, gather up, time to introduce yerself to our new brothers!" His bellow drew the other soldiers, and they stood at the ready. Lyons, Jim and Cole introduced themselves, as a small mouse carrying a backpack much larger than him stuffed to the brim with explosives, stepped forward.

"Bonjour, Flippy!" He laughed, twirling his moustache. Flippy immediately warmed up the soldier, they had known each other for years, after all.

"Mouse Ka-boom! You son of a bitch, how did you of all people get into the 1st?"

"How else? With zee boom!" He laughed, and the two began exchanging old war stories until the last man, the one-eyed man who Flaky had seen before. He approached, his posture was slouched and weighed down with the bottle of alcohol he held in one hand.

"Tavish Degroot, the real explosives master around here." He held his hand out to Coop, who cautiously shook it. His hesitancy angered Tavish, who began to shout, "What, you ain't never seen a black Scottish Cyclops before? Yeah, go ahead and stare, they'd charge you a buck fifty at a freakshow to look anywhere else, ya bloody bastard." He turned away in disgust from Coop, who was more confused than anything. The Scotsman assured him though, that it "Wasn't his fault". The two began to discuss what they'd be doing for the remainder of their time, when Lyons came forward,

"Sir, we've just received a transmission from Jack, the factory's hot. Alteast 200 soldiers have been confirmed alongside any number of robots currently there, and some have been scrambled to survey the area. We need to cut them off." Scotsman knew what could happen if they didn't, though the others were a little confused. Cole explained to Coop their situation

"We're the last line of defense if the Dagger squad fails to eliminate the threat. We've got more troops, but we can't risk getting them involved or we'll lose thousands by tomorrow morning."

Flippy was in doubt, "How close can you possibly be, they'd need some time to reach your camp."

"An hour at best," The Scotsman said grimly, "Our main base of operation is directly across the supply bridge about a mile away from our position. They'll find the Derrick tracks and be on our asses in an hour. We need to act fast, are your men ready for combat?"

Coop looked back at his squad, then to the Scotsman,

"We're in, but one condition," A smile drew over his face once again, and even though The Scotsman knew Coop for less than an hour, he seemed to know he wouldn't like the request.

"I'm driving"

* * *

Eh, I'm not exactly sure what I should be saying right now. In case you didn't realize, Tavish Degroot is the Demoman from TF2(Using his official name, for those who didn't know).

Maybe I'll post a list of characters and their origins at the end of this book, which should be in maybe five more chapters? Oh the excitement!


	10. Speaking

**Author's Note**

For those fans of the One World(How few there are…) I've taken the liberty of having a friend commission some artwork to go along with the story. I gave her complete freedom when she drew it, and she used only what she had read(IE what you've all read) to compose it (Saves me a bit of trouble, so I don't have to worry about her spoiling anything). For those of you interested, I'll have it up on a Deviantart account of the same name (Phoenix Reece)

I'm also going to give a shot at posting my work there, and hopefully it will attract a few more readers.

**One World**

Throbbing, painful darkness, Reece winced for a moment and clutched his head. Pulling himself off the ground, he felt around for anything familiar, his bat, the gun, even one of the circuits or wires that were strewn about the steel floor of the laboratory. But, he found nothing, and he reluctantly opened his eyes to find himself, and hopefully Jenny.

But, the world around him was no brighter than the inside of his own eyelids.

…

A whirring, Jenny roused herself after what had been an eternity. She barely remembered falling asleep, or the vivid images of her mother that had flashed through her head. But she was awake now, awake and strangely wet.

She had been lying on the ground, and first found her own hands, examining them as if they were something new, before she pulled herself up. Her body was a bit heavier than she remembered, and yet she still pulled herself up with relative ease. She recoiled in terror, realizing what she had clung to in order to pull herself up. A twisted, perverted form of herself, dyed red and black hovered above the ground before her. She backed away, realizing she was surrounded by the doppelgangers, hung from their mechanical Pigtails by a wire rack like puppets, strung up by circuits that ran into the machines, and up into the ceiling of the room.

"Does it scare you?" She heard that disgusting voice, Spicer, pulling himself from the vicious green gel that was still dripping from her, and spilled across the ground. "I can tell, you're terrified."

Jenny took a step back, when she realized something was weighing her leg down, and she fell backwards trying to pull her leg away. She hit hard, and was pulled up again from the floor by her leg, and a pair of yellow eyes stared down on her. Another copy, but this time imbued with life, and a tasteless malice. Her face was some sort of mechanical hate, unfeeling, yet bloodthirsty, if only because Jenny was a new target.

"You should be scared, she killed your boyfriend." Jack's voice was taunting her again. "Take a good look at your sister's work." At Jack's command, the robot turned her around, still upside down, and dropped her to the floor again, but her body landed on something much softer.

It was Reece, lying on the floor. His left arm was nearly torn off, a blade had rend it from his shoulder, and his blood had became brown as it mixed with the green goo. Jenny couldn't believe what had happened, her mind needed more time to piece everything together.

"You took him too, and did this.." She whispered,

"Wrong, I didn't bring him here." His voice, Jack's, it was closer now. She hadn't taken her eyes from Reece, but she could tell he was much closer to her. "He couldn't let you go, and now he'll never see you again." Jack came closer, almost in front of his own robot, but he knew not to tread near her, the operation wasn't finished. She was still unstable.

"You killed him," Her blood, had she any, was boiling. He was close enough, now she only had one thing on her mind. She was weak, but she could still collapse his skull if she caught him off guard. She was still a robot, built stronger than a human. But the other robot, she would have to kill it first, then she could finish Jack in an instant.

"Just give it up, you're finally useful to somebody this way. With all these JS models, we'll be invincible. One Jenny Spicer possesses the military might of twenty Jack-bots, and we've already produced 30 functioning models in the span of a day. We could end this was within a month, and it's all because of you." Finally, Jenny snapped, and turned to strike.

Within an instant, three things happened. Jack, anticipating her resistance, stepped backwards and thrust his own "daughter" in front of him. Second, Jenny, as she attacked, felt something flip inside of her, a mechanism that hadn't been active in years. A blade unfolded from her forearm and she dug it into the first thing she could reach, a crunch of metal and sparking electricity let her know she was successful in her attack, but only on her first target. And finally an unfortunate Jenny Spicer model 24 was skewered through the head, destroying it immediately. Jack casually pushed the shell aside, and smiled at her,

"Honestly, it's more disappointing than anything else, You could have been a real asset. But I had anticipated something like this, something in me told me the reconversion wouldn't go through

….

Reece gripped the air around himself, knowing he couldn't be where he was without help. The factory had been around him seconds ago, but he doubted that as well. God only knew how long he'd been unconscious, and maybe he was still asleep. Perhaps for good,

"No, not yet. You're going to live." A voice echoed from all around him, "I promise your journey doesn't end here."

Light pulsed around him each time the voice reached his ears. He pulled himself up, trying to comprehend what was happening,

"I'm not sure what's going on, where am I?"

"Not dead, I know you're wondering about that. But your location for right now is where you were moments ago, but you will be moving shortly." Reece was beginning to give shape to the voice, but it was still inhuman. Angels were said to have no genders, existing outside such boundaries, and that was the closest thing he could get to identifying who, or whatever was speaking to him. It spoke again before he could ask anything else,

"Specifically, you had freed Jenny, and now you're lying unconscious and bleeding on the floors of a laboratory. Not going to die yet, though. Quite a bit more to come before that."

"Are you divine, an Angel or something?" He finally managed to get a word in as the voice paused, soon it spoke again, almost amused with him,

"Things aren't as simple as that, but I suppose you could say I am a higher power. I've spoken to you before, but it must have been vague."

"Why are you talking to me, am I special or something?"

"Very, I can assure you. You have something special you need to do."

Reece sat again, he felt like he was a child again, receiving a lecture from his father. Nothing he could do but listen and occasionally nod his head. As he waited, he began to still his own breath, feeling like he could offend his divine intervention and perhaps his decision to live would be rewritten. He felt something land in his hair, and brushed a small fragment of what looked to be glass from his head. Others were falling around him, drifting down like snow.

He picked up the one that he had brushed away between two fingers and looked carefully, trying to figure out if he had created it in his own mind, or his new friend had created them. It appeared to be a shard of broken glass, but it's surface refracted light off it in incredible patterns, like a computer screen. Lines of static ran through it, and it undulated colors of deep purple and a nearly transparent blue. It slipped, without warning, from his fingers and fell to the blackened ground of his mind again. His fingers were wet, the fragment had melted like snow between his fingers.

…

"What do you mean, "reconversion"?" Jenny's voice was bolder than it had been in years, now she had her fight back inside her, quite literally.

"What, do you honestly expect me to tell you everything, like a half-witted villain? We're not playing pretend anymore, sweetheart." Jack, still at a comfortable distance, found a hand held laser strapped to his thigh, pulling it on Jenny, and evening the ground again. "I was finished fixing you, and now I'm going to break you again so I can properly reprogram you."

Jenny tried to retract the blade, but her body wouldn't respond. The trigger on Jack's gun was already pulled, and she soon realized what was going on.

"Electromagnetic disrupter, always carry it for defiant ones like you. Now if you'll come along quietly it will be much easier for us both." He began walking towards Jenny, keeping the blaster at head level, he reached around the back of her head, feeling for something. "Of course, I trust you won't bother coming quietly, so I'll just shut you down before I dismantle you, how's that sound?"

Jenny cringed at his touch, but she had no control over her body with that pulse taking control of her. Her heart shook as he began to open her up; she had no way of knowing what he was doing. But she still felt his hand, roughly pulling on the circuits inside her, reaching into her soul. She stood, a mannequin, waiting to die.

…

"But how can you speak to me? Are you inside of me, or are you that powerful?" Reece asked. His hand was still extended to catch the glass shards as they drifted to him. They were almost like fragments of butterfly wings, yet they seemed digital. Not to mention how they dissolved into his hand.

"I don't belong inside of you, or anywhere for that matter. I exist outside dimensions, a world unreachable."

"Then how are you doing this?"

"A friend of yours, he stumbled upon me and I was shocked. No one had ever reached me before, he can somehow belong to every world, mine and yours, and the others that had come together. He was a piece of dimensional flotsam, drifting from place to place, uninhibited."

Reece paused in thought, "Homsar? He's that special?"

"Special, maybe, but he's definitely different. I can use him as a beacon to speak to you through our worlds."

"But, why?"

…

If she could cry, she would be as he slowly began shutting her body down. Her arms dropped to her sides, limp and he began on another piece of her mind.

Now that rage that had filled her over Reece's body was fading, her helplessness was becoming apparent. The anger drained from her body now that she was a prisoner again, the flicker of hope she had was vanishing.

It was now Jenny felt the pain her mother had given her, emotional pain. Her body had replicated nerves that felt physical pain, installed in her like a machine. But this pain was learned, when the war began, when she lost her mother. It was the same feeling, deep despair of a hopeless, frightened girl. Her mind began to give in on itself, she began shutting herself down just to end the feeling.

A crack of light struck by her, and Jack withdrew his arm from inside of her, and another, he screamed and the hold over her was released. Her body collapsed, as she tried to revive herself. Her arm strength returned and she found the disrupter Jack had held her with in front of her. In a rage, she smashed her fist down on the device, cracking it slightly, hopefully enough to break it.

She turned on Jack again, who, despite her efforts, threw her away with hardly a scratch, and she tumbled to Reece's side again. His suit, it made him much stronger.

"_I shouldn't have broken that damn gun.." _She pulled herself back up, and realized that she had been receiving help. Across the room stood a man, Kurtis, dressed in a slick white coat, the only thing pointier than his bright green hair, gelled back of course, was his nose. It seemed a bird's nose, comparable to a penguin's beak, quite a ridiculous comparison if you actually knew who you were talking about.

Kurtis, as Jenny remembered the moment she saw him, was a famous scientist, making strides in space travel and engineering. But, his greatest achievement was the reconstruction of his own body, he was a cyborg, Half human, half machine.

His finger was held decisively at Jack, still smoking. It had been the source of the powerful beam of light that had struck him twice, piercing even his heavy ballistics proof armor in an instant.

"Jack, pleasure to see you again, how are projects going? Well, I can only assume." Kurtis chuckled a little, not lowering his finger from him.

"Kurtis, I figured you'd turn up on the wrong side again. Incredible you could find enough metal to piece yourself together, was your family as lucky?" Jack's words stung Kurtis, whose calm demeanor twisted into a sharp seriousness.

"Jenny," he spoke much more seriously to her, "leave. Take Reece and leave. We don't have much time, we're destroying the factory, and every second your squadron spends here is risking your lives."

Jenny couldn't argue with him, she guessed he was right, and they both were running out of time. She quickly pulled Reece up, barely able to carry his armor covered body, and started running. She ran past Kurtis, who still held a strong stance against Jack, and when she was gone, he slowly advanced on his foe.

"So, there's no other way this can end, you're going to die here and now Jack," He cracked his knuckles, raising them before his face at inhuman speeds.

"No, you're wrong, It's not my place to die. I won't be the first," Jack raised his augmented arms into a vicious fighting stance. He clenched his fist, red energy crackled from inside the suit. They met by the tank where Jenny had been held, facing each other with stony eyes.

"It'll be a shame to kill such a promising mind, Kurtis."

"I'd say the same for you, but you're nothing but a spoiled little brat now."

...

Sirens blared, the sound of five hundred soldiers, mechanical and organic pouring from the factory to the main courtyard before the steel goliath. Each one took a rifle, the high powered lasers made especially by the Eternal Empire's masterminds like Spicer, each designed to fire a bolt of concentrated light that could pierce a body faster than a bullet with a two second head start. Their armored vehicles were like perversions of the Sherman tank, augmented with various tubes and devices of unknown, but certainly insidious, design. Explosives hung from the sides along the four barrels that sprung from the monstrous vehicles the faceless soldiers were rallied about.

Above the organized chaos, in a watch tower stood Vlad, who looked down on his troops with great pride, not as their master, but as their hero. He was their president, they fought for him and for the glorious Eternal Empire. For King and Country.

"Shame they will never meet their king," Vlad said, smiling grimly. "From the wall of his glass watchtower, he took a speaker and addressed his men. His voice, charisma not scathed by the war that had torn the world apart before his eyes, boomed over the speakers surrounding the men, who immediately took heed.

"Soldiers, I do not need to tell you for whom you fight, and for what. The Eternal Lord who reigns above us all knows this as well, he knows that you fight for the Empire, and that you are holy in that. And so he knows that you fight for his will and the glorious land that he has established. Remember you fight for order and rule in this chaotic world we were thrust into. Now go with The Lord and strike down the Rebels who would fight to see the end of us all!"

The soldiers, at his words thrust their rifles into the air, and let forth a hundred screams of war that pierced the sky. As they marched forward, Vlad turned to find his own bodyguard, Tobe, wounded and bleeding.

"Sir, forgive me, there was a Samurai, fighting with three swords, I barely escaped." He spoke trying to ration his breaths; the wounds were certainly fatal without treatment, "I couldn't find Vega, but he's certainly dead. He attempted to fight General Jack." Vlad seemed hardly concerned with his dying bodyguard, but his interest piqued when he mentioned Jack.

"General Jack is here?" A thousand thoughts ran though the mind of the genius.

_The First Rebellion, he wouldn't fight alone, _"Did you see where he escaped to?"

"No sir, but he's destroyed a major part of the factory, he's probably simply going to escape. There's no reason he'd risk being here longer than he has to" Vlad's eyes flashed with vicious intent for a moment, and suddenly Tobe was more frightened of his master than his wounds. But, Vlad's expression died, and his face became docile.

"But of course, no reason," He said, calmly examining his right hand, the left still supporting his weight with the gold tipped cane. He was an older man, in his fifites perhaps. "Far too old…"

"Excuse me, sir?"

Vlad, without a word, reached one hand out to the frightened man, placing his palm on his forehead. Fear paralyzed Tobe,

"I said I'm far too old to go chasing after a Samurai, but I'm sure you could.." Tobe writhed in pain, a burning sensation in his body ripped at his very mind, and the wind around the watch tower swirled. Vlad began to spark with some insidious energy, and his body changed. His skin became a deep blue, and his eyes a red abyss. And all at once he vanished, and Tobe fell to the ground, twitching occasionally. But, in a few seconds, the ninja pulled himself up, and casually brushed his tunic off, blood still dripping from it. His eyes flashed red for a moment, and he smiled beneath a face mask.

"You know what they say," The same charismatic voice of his master came from the ninja's lips, "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

* * *

Aaaaaaand FINISHED! Hope this extra long chapter makes up for my long absence.

Sorry, trust me, my schedule's a lot more loose, so I'll get a few more chapter's up soon. And remember to check Deviantart for Phoenix Reece, and I'll have my "One World" Art up!


	11. Always Strike Last

**Author's Note**

Have you ever heard of the concept of "Chekov's Gun?"

A man named Chekov once made a statement about a pattern in storytelling, and he said, "If, in chapter one, the author describes a scene and mentions a gun on the wall then in chapter two or three that gun will be fired. It wouldn't be there if the author didn't use it."

Interesting observation, don't you think?

**One World**

"Your trials have just begun, I'm afraid,"

The voice spoke again. Reece was straining to hear it, every time it talked it was as if he had heard it in a dream and was still trying to piece together what it was he heard. It was milky, almost as if the speaker was not tangible and even its voice passed through him before he could hear it. It seemed male, but at the same time it fluctuated. Angels were said to be human, and yet lack a gender, and that was the best way he could describe the one speaking to him.

"It's going to get much more difficult from now on."

Reece stood, finally feeling comfortable with the guest in his mind, "How do you know all of this, I need to know what you are!"

"Don't yell, I can hear you perfectly. But for know you can't concern yourself with that, you will meet me in time."

"When?"

"When it is time. You will go through great things, and then you will reach me. And then it will all end."

"Are you, are you threatening me?"

"No, I am merely telling you what will happen. Your story and the story of this earth will end." Reece threw himself forward, unsure of what he was attacking, but in a pulse of rage he attacked the darkness. But he only fell once again, as if something was pulling him down. He struggled, but his very skin seemed to be bound to the blackened floor.

"Don't rise to strike me, not yet at least, and never forget what I have told you. " The voice spoke again, those last words seemed to repeat in Reece's mind. It echoed endlessly,

"Never forget….Never Forget…."

He struggled, still trying to pull himself free from the unseen chains on his body. But he couldn't stand, the strange entity had suddenly made himself a prisoner in his own mind. He screamed in his prison. His voice was hot, pained, and above all frightened.

The crystal glass rained down upon him, falling like feathers down on his body, threatening to bury him alive. But each one dissolved on his body once again. Only now, his vision was clouded with each shard that fell on his body. Until he could only hear faint mutterings, of his own mind and of some others speaking over him.

….

There he stood, a figure of pride and might. He was one of the greatest leaders the Rebellion had on their side. There was good reason he was called "The Mad Scotsman", he had earned his title with Blood and Iron.

There was never a stronger unit than the Hammer squad, they were the crushing force that leveled Empire Cities and squashed their encampments under a boot of steel. And now they were poised for one more battle to seal the Empire's fate and drive them from the north. A choke point battle of the likes of Thermopylae lay ahead, behind them was a bridge less than fifty feet across, spanning a large chasm carved out by a river of old. There they had dug in with nothing but a few boulders and their own Derrick to lean upon.

"How far now Cole?" Scotsman called down from his perch atop a boulder, to the small barracks that housed less than twenty soldiers.

"Well, the machines are close, sir. We can hear them from here," But his was cut off by his own commander,

"Of course I can bloody hear it! We've heard it for the past thirty Goddamned minutes!," He was right, The Empire was on their doorstep, so to speak. War machines had been moving towards them, and they knew it. The sound of a hundred tanks backed by the marches of five hundred machines and men was pounding down on them , and it was starting to get to a few men. Flaky had climbed back into the Derrick at Flippy's request; her stress was beginning to rack her nerves. War never changed, and neither did Shellshock. "I meant about the bloody radar you idiot. How close are they?"

Cole cursed under his breath and examined the small machine they had unloaded, a blotch of red appeared every second, moving slower than a minute's hand toward them. "Sir, they can't be more than a mile off," He looked up to his commander, standing above their barrier of sandbags and barbed wire. He simply nodded in his direction, and Cole understood the situation, he'd done this a thousand times before in the battles leading up to this, and his teammates were just as equally prepared. He grabbed his rifle, and pounded the ground with its butt twice.

The soldier beside him, a man dressed in what seemed a pair of WW2 era soldier's fatigues, grabbed his own weapon from the dirt beside him. He pounded the ground with the butt of a large rocket launcher, and looked to his left. The soldier beside him did the same, a man dressed in a uniform similar to Cole's, and Lyons next, Followed by Jim, Tavish, and Mouse. Coop awkwardly imitated the routine, tapping the ground with the butt of the assault rifle he had been given. Flippy did the same with the one he had been given, albeit in a more uniform fashion. Within Seconds the entire platoon had repeated the movements, the signal of things to come and now each was aware of the incoming fight. It was movements like this, Flippy had noted, that made them of a higher level than them. They were the elite,

"And we're the elite now," Flippy whispered down the barrel of the gun. It was a pre-Merge one, perhaps even outdated before then. But it had raw ballistics power, and that was all that mattered. Slowly, he slid back the rifle's safety, breathing on the cold steel. He could feel the earth shaking now, rocks trembled at their feet. He looked back up to Flaky, behind the bullet proof glass of the Derrick's cockpit. He prayed he wouldn't die, simply for her sake.

He looked down the barracks, the other soldiers were all positioned along the front of the Derrick, a semi-circle of offense to drive back the storm that they were about to face. Flippy saw Cole, their eyes met and he looked away quickly. Then, he saw him shove the man in similar uniform to his own, and they exchanged a few words and the other man ducked his head below the sandbags, and ran to their sides, he stood between Coop and Flippy, and steadied a sniper rifle between the two.

"Heh, sorry," He spoke through a metallic blue mask, looking back and forth between them, "I was having trouble aiming, and Cole told me I could get a better shot from over here. Name's Carmine by the way." Neither of the two looked from their iron sights.

"Flippy, I'm Flippy."

"Coop, pleasure."

"Jeez, you guys don't mess around huh?" He asked, but neither responded. He settled back to his gun, and to his shock he could now see them. Through his scope, he caught the first glimpse of the advancing horde. Dressed in black and silver steel, emblazoned each with the crest of Blue and Purple, the twisted wings were sprayed on their backs. It was hard to tell Robot from human, from their identical paces to their bulky suits, and glowing orange eyes. Even the Scotsman with the eyes of a hawk, could only tell for certain that one was human. He wore the flag of the Empire upon his back like a banner, and held to weapons, but a small Megaphone.

That same human stepped forward to them, his army close behind, halfway through what was soon to be a battlefield, and spoke through the Megaphone.

"Rebels, you are outnumbered, out gunned, and outmatched. Surrender now, and we will let you go free, under one condition."

The Scotsman humored him, "And what would that be?" His voice boomed across the battlefield with no aid.

"The unconditional surrender of you, your squadron, and any other agents under your command, as well as the relinquishing of any and all weapons or resources you may possess to the eternal empire!"

Still mocking him in his own way, the Scotsman placed a hand upon his chin, and stroked it as he pondered the offer. "Well then," He shouted again, "you say we are outnumbered, outgunned, and outmatched? Well then the only course I see is to even the odds here. Mouse, Tavish, don't you agree?"

Flippy looked to his side, and noticed Tavish had left his post, and was now leaning against the Derrick's massive tires. He took a swig of a brown glass bottle he had at his side and saluted the Scotsman, who saluted back. Flippy looked to his other side, Mouse was beside him. Smiling, he kissed his finger tips and popped his lips, as a chef or artist would after their greatest work had finally come full circle. Flippy smiled, as he knew exactly what he was about to say.

"Le-Boom!" In an instant, the entire battlefield became an inferno, the sky was lit up with the Hammer Squad's sucker punch landed. Hundreds of soldiers were torn to shreds by the explosion, more than half the army that was sent had vanished in a ball of fire. And most notably of all, the man who had bore the flag of the Empire, was nothing more than the fragments of a singed suit of armor.

"Strike hard, strike fast, strike first," the Scotsman muttered under his breath, as the flames began to clear before him. He gripped his enormous sword and leapt forward, his stubby legs bounding forward as he drew the sword, and he began to scream the final words of his credo to the scattered troops,

"**And Strike LAST!"**

With those words the soldiers exploded in a hail of gunfire from both ends. Flippy, clicked the trigger slowly, firing in controlled bursts, laying out a soldier in each pull of his finger, while Coop had adopted a scythe mentality, and swept the battlefield clipping hundreds of men. One of the mounted machine guns had been lowered off the Derrick, and was now being manned by Cole. He shouted with delight, war was his playground. Each soldier seemed custom tooled to war, Jim even seemed to enjoy blasting the incoming waves. With a ridiculous grin plastered on his face, he fired the one handed blaster with incredible accuracy, even daring to toss the gun into the air and catch it, firing off another shot each time.

Flaky couldn't believe what she was seeing; the Hammer squad was actually winning. The hundreds of men the Empire had sent were nothing, she was horrified, but at the same time she had never felt such excitement. She was fighting with true heroes, or, more rather watching true heroes fight. She sat on the cold metal floor of the cockpit, hardly caring she was in a warzone anymore.

"Stupid Flippy, he never lets me fight for myself…"

Suddenly, she was thrown violently to one side. The entire vehicle shook beneath her, by force she begged not to find out. But, she pulled her reserve up and crawled to the bulletproof window to discover, in complete horror, what had attacked her.

The rest of the squad saw as well, the war machine kept in reserve for such an occasion. It was obvious that the Empire would not send any random soldiers, had they any idea that 1st was nearby. They fought to win, and it was clear that this was their trump card.

Standing as high as the Derrick, a Tank of monstrous proportions was being pulled forward on both enormous treads but a pair of robotic legs powered by hissing pumps of steam, it looked like an enormous hermit crab of black steel. The "shell" of the beast were at least twenty cannons, pointed at random angles, The Derrick had just been struck by one, and had been pushed back towards the chasm by the sheer force of the impact.

Cole was the first to react, "TAVISH! The mortar gun, take that thing out!"

He immediately responded, throwing his grenade launcher aside, Tavish began to scale the ladder of the Derrick where the Mortar gun had been positioned. Flaky saw him approaching, and ran from the cockpit to help him. He was attempting to lug the mortar gun into position when she approached. Through the bombs and bullets tearing up her ears, she had to scream to him just to hear her own voice.

"LET ME HELP!"

He turned, the gun in hand, and a screamed back, "I don't need any bloody help! Now get back in the god damned Cockpit before you get hurt!"

"I'm not gonna hurt myself, just let me fight Flippy!" She gasped, covering her mouth in surprise. Had she just said what she thought she had?"

"I don't care! Commander's orders, now- Lookout!"

A whistling cut the air, and he jumped on top of the frightened porcupine. A crash shook her world, followed by her savior screaming bloody murder. He collapsed on top of her, breathing heavily, she could feel blood pouring out of him. He managed to whisper to her, and through some miracle she could hear him beneath the battle around them.

"The Mortar, get the mortar gun."

"But what about you…"

"I can't feel my legs… I can't shoot it. We don't have a doctor, so forget about helping me! Just worry about taking out that gun!" Tavish threw Flaky from underneath him, and collapsed, still gasping for air. Flaky could see his legs, a hundred pieces of shrapnel fire ripped his tendons open, she could see bone. And that was nearly her, she began to hyperventilate, fear starting to grip her chest. She nearly seized up and cried, before she realized what was going on.

Her fear was controlling her again, holding her back. So mustering every bit of courage she had, the little porcupine threw herself forward and grabbed the mortar cannon, nearly as large as herself, and heaved it to the side of the Derrick.

It was an enormous device, a long, silver barrel mounted with several smaller mechanisms, and a tripod to hold it up. She tilted in on its axis, the machine making several clicking noises as it rotated into position, aiming down the line at the mechanical hulk of the Empire's twisted design. The other tank seemed to notice her, as if it were alive itself, and began to rotate it's body towards her.

She fumbled with the Cannon, fearing that it was readying to fire upon her. Then, she noticed him, The Scotsman, tumble from the pile of corpses and numerous craters to meet the goliath tank. Flaky could only watch, wide-eyed as he danced around it, gracefully moving despite his own girth and the enormous sword he carried, and strike with the strength of an atom bomb. He tore open one of the large crab legs with one quick swipe, and then the other, before checking the machine with his bare shoulder, staggering its firing stance. He motioned to Flaky, waving his sword wildly, and she quickly returned to trying to activate the cannon, when she noticed a large handle over the side of it. She tugged it backwards, and the Mortar rumbled for a few seconds, and then a shell exploded forward, arching downward upon the other tank. In mid air it split apart, becoming several explosives, all bombarding the same target. The Scotsman leaped backwards just before the explosion hit the tank, which had been so filled with other volatile ammunition it was consumed in an enormous explosion, raining scraps and fire down upon the battlefield.

All at once, the Empire began to fall back, of the five hundred men sent to destroy them, less than ten were fleeing from the torn battlefield. Through the smoke and fire, the Scotsman had holstered his sword, and stood above the wreckage of the Empire war machine. A proud grin slowly dawned on his face, once again they had triumphed over the Empire, and once more they had did it flawlessly.

Or so he thought.

…

She fled, her metal feet pounded the factory floor, the only sound that she could hear was her own hurried footsteps. The sirens of the factory had all ceased, as if they were the only ones left. Her, Kurtis, Jack, and Reece. She had no idea where she was, or where she was running, but Reece needed her help. The wounds were deep, and he was soaked to the bone with some strange green fluid from the machines, in fact it had even seeped into his wounds. He was going to die if she didn't find help soon.

She rounded a corner and her heart skipped a beat in surprise.

Standing before her was a Ninja, bloodied and beaten, yet his stance betrayed his wounds. He stood with a strange refinement, despite the deep gashes lining his chest. He spoke, and her blood ran cold when she recognized the voice.

"Why hello Jenny, wonderful to see you again."

* * *

Dun DUN DUUUUUUN!

Oh, and as you may have noticed, the promotional artwork for the story is now up.  
Special thanks to Imgaarasninja of Deviantart for her hard work.

But I assure you it will be posted shortly,(I hope....)


	12. Fight

**Author's Note**

Hey, hey, hey, guess what today is? MY BIRTHDAY!

As a special treat, I'm updating all my stories simultaneously! So while I eat cake, you read fanfics!

**One World**

She ran.

She had no other choice in her mind when she saw him. She had already been taken from her squad, she had her body and mind split open and looked upon by a mad man, and even as she ran through the halls of a murder factory clutching her unconscious, bleeding commander and friend, she had never felt the pangs of horror so much as when she saw him.

Vlad Masters, he had done this to her. He was the reason her mother was…

The gears that lined her legs turned faster, pistons pumping harder to escape the thought. She could only run now, she couldn't bear to see him. She knew exactly what he was going to do to her if she was caught. The same thing that happened to her mother.

She would be erased.

…One Month after the Celestian Incident…  
…New York City, a new Metropolis…

Fall was just beginning to dawn on the new world for what was only the fifth time. Four years since the merge, and the chaos that followed. People had difficulty remembering what had gone on when the merge occurred. One moment there was a shock, and every sentient being that had existed in those different dimensions had become dormant. They slipped into a sleep, so to say. When people awoke, they were exactly where they had been before. Cars had stopped in the street, people pulled themselves off the sidewalks into a new world. It was strange, people seeing creatures that they had never imagined before now. Human-animal hybrids, robots of beyond futuristic design, and what could only be described as demons now shared a planet with the human race. Suffice to say, people were worried. Riots broke out, people attacked even people they recognized, fearing the worst, and in some cases, war sparked against these new creatures.

China, most notably, within two months had launched a genocide campaign against any "non-human". This nearly culminated in a nuclear holocaust, and had it not been for the revolts of those same "Non-humans", the new Earth would be a smoldering husk.

But, this was merely hysteria taking its toll. People were foolish at times, and acted on their fear. Now, four years later order had set in. The united governments had come together, seeing the need for unity above all else. This was history's greatest opportunity, and it was nearly realized. But then, the Celestian Incident shattered that all in an instant. Violence was breaking out around the world, and no one knew why. People began to turn on one another, without warning, and it seemed World War Terminus hung over the head of this new world. And the question on everyone's lips was simple.

"Who Murdered Celestia?"

That was what Jenny had come to New York to find. It was still the strong, bustling city that it had always been, and even knee deep in the blood red waters of the impending war that Celestia had let flood the Earth, people went along their lives as usual. The people of America, as they always have, had seen no need to fluster themselves over any crisis, even the assassination of every world leader. Truly, it was an outrage to them, but what were they supposed to do? They were merely human, and they couldn't fight.

Just like Jenny. Explosions had torn at her circuits, and even though Reece had saved her, she had lost connection to the weapons that had been implanted in her body. She was a army contained in one girl, and yet all that power was chained inside a teenage robot shell. But her will has persevered, and now she had arrived in New York City to find out who had killed the council, and most importantly her mother.

In a flourishing park, three blocks down from the theater district she sat, staring, in both anger and curiosity at the letter she had received in her mother's empty home, where she had planned on living the rest of her lonely life.

A piece of extravagant parchment that was almost mocking Jenny's loss, aside from directions to one of the few survivor's office buildings the note had only this to say;

_Jenny, I know about Celestia. If you wish to learn, I can only offer you crushing honesty._

_-Vlad Masters_

She shook her head in defeat, deciding that there was nothing else left for her to do but listen to this craven, political figurehead who hid a massacre in plain sight. He had done nothing but lit a candle for the event, and only just recently suggested building up the World's Army. Finally, Jenny stood up from the bench and walked, silently, down the streets towards the government building where Vlad had taken up residence. She walked past a group of ghetto children who were pestering a shop keeper, an elderly lizard peddling fruit from his homeland, with a thousand questions about its race. She turned her head to watch as the shop keeper swung his tail at the feet of a child who had tugged his scales, and the children ran away, some laughing, and some genuinely frightened. They ran past her, some even pushing to get by without having to step into the busy street. It would offend her, but their ignorance of her presence was comforting, somewhat. She wasn't a freak in their eyes, which was something she had always wished for.

But she tried not to think on this point, given that she was, in sense of fighting ability, now a normal human. She rounded one last street corner, and saw the Governor's office, an enormous building of white stone and glass, standing on sixty foot Parthenon columns that gave it the illusion of a house of justice. People dressed in fine suits moved up and down the twenty five steps of marble that led up to the building's numerous doors, scittering back and forth like cockroaches. No one minded her, the fact beginning to sting that no one seemed to care about her presence. Less than a year before she was a hero, fighting for the new world, and now she was nobody, a crippled nobody.

The secretary seemed uninterested in her, as if she was trying especially hard to forget she had ever seen a blue robot walk up to the front desk and asked to be sent to Governor Masters' office. Jenny was led unceremoniously to the elevator, which was only opened by certified personnel, and she was sent upwards, alone, through the building. There were only two buttons illuminated on the side, one going up, and one doing down. Not everyone was allowed an audience with Masters, especially in times of crisis.

She exited directly into his office, a spacious, perfectly rounded room, the walls coated with the spines of hundreds of books jutting out from the bookshelves wrapped around them. He stood, away from his desk, gazing out the window to the city's skyline.

"Hello Jenny," He didn't turn to face her, " I suppose we both know why we're here."

She clenched her jaw, in anger, he spoke so coldly and acted so numb about her mother's death.

"Anger doesn't suit you, Jenny. Especially not in your current state. In fact, you seem only fit for begging for mercy, with your dented little body, and frail little arms." He spoke with contempt, and her anger only boiled harder. Anger, a gift of her mother.

She wanted to punch him, beat him within an inch of his life and toss his disgusting body out the window onto the cold sidewalk. It would make for a nice crime scene.

"You're quite the comedian." She huffed under her breath.

"I'm sorry. I don't deal with tragedy well." He sat down before her at his desk, sweeping a few papers from it. "Jenny, I'm not your enemy. But since your mother died you have refused to communicate with the outside world, and you need to know the truth behind that incident."

She paused, a cold fear ran up her spine,

"What are talking about?"

"Sit." She obeyed, she was too frightened to do anything else.

"Long before the incident, during the merge," He paused, and rubbed his temples. Vlad knew what he was about to say would destroy her. Jenny could never see the world as she once did, now she could see it the way he had been forced to. "Some of us, your mother and I, along with some others, remained conscious, while the world was shaped…"

…

What he said next, Jenny drowned from her mind, it was all lies to her. The same filth they fed the populous, of the Eternal Lord. Some omnipotent creature that ruled all of existence and defined the movements of every person in the world, in his world.

But she knew better, there was no Eternal Lord, he was a figurehead meant to control the people and scare loyalty out of them. After her speech with Vlad she ignored the offer he had presented her, to live in the city, peacefully, under Empire rule.

She instead joined the resistance, and in the winter of the same year, she was recruited into a small scouting battalion, where she met her commander.

The man she now held, bleeding in her arms. Fear, another of her mother's gifts, that had been given to her when her mother died. had spent years trying to build a human-like daughter, but Jenny never really felt true emotion until her death.

Vlad walked behind her, closer than she had hoped, stepping on the air. He had abandoned his guard's body, a cheap parlor trick he used to frighten her. It was almost painful doing this to her, but it was nothing compared to the suffering he lived with.

He raised one hand, and it was surrounded with a green glow, "Are you afraid Jenny?" She froze, realizing she couldn't escape him.

"You don't know anything about fear." He twisted his hand, and the metal walls contorted and twisted in front of her, blocking the hallway. It didn't matter, she had no idea where she was going. She turned and faced his hideous form. Blue skinned, his pitch black hair spiked up like horns. And those piercing red eyes.

"Your mother knew true fear, just like the rest of us. That's why she struggled so much." He lifted his hand, and Jenny began to float, dropping Reece's body to the ground. He tossed his hand to the side and struck her body against the hard metal walls, letting her fall back to the cold floor. "You should have listened. I know you believed me, and I know you still remember."

Her mind heard his words echo back, what she had tried to hide so long ago. His voice still rang clear in her head, all those years ago.

_What we saw, was the world being molded around us…_

But no, she wouldn't surrender yet, she wouldn't die here. Vlad watched as she pulled her dented metal frame back up, and looked at him with that arrogant defiance, the same he once saw in her mother's eyes. He raised a hand, and she prepared for another blow, but it never came.

He let himself float back to the ground, and approached her, speaking as he went, "Remember what we saw? The others, they were all at the Celestian Conference, they knew what would happen, and tried to fight it. Your mother was the worst, that's why I made sure she died first."

"Shut up." She clenched her hands, but fear was still gripping her. She felt just as powerless as she did before, when she was weak.

"She was an idiot!" He grabbed her shoulders, and shook her," We looked into the eyes of God! He told us how the war would begin, and how each one of us would die! He wrapped the cosmos around his finger and yet she still fought it until she died. And now, you still don't believe me!"

She refused to look up at him, to face her death. She was still weak, but…

"You still can't accept it! He told us that we would die, and that when we did, there would be nothing! We would cease to exist!"

Her eyes flared up, some light inside her was shining in response to her own fears, and it was clear. _I'm not weak, not anymore _

He pushed her away, against the twisted metal barricade. She kept her eyes down, and spoke softly,

"Shut up…"

He didn't even hear her speak, and ignited his hands with that same green flame, readying himself, "And now it's come to this, it's a shame really, if only your stupid little friend had stayed out of this, he'd still be safe in his little bunker."

She raised her voice, "Leave him out of this!"

"Or what? What can a pathetic little robot do to stop me?" He raised his hand to strike her, but when his fist fell, it passed right through her head, "Don't you see? I'm far more powerful than you can imagine. A ghost-human hybrid, the last of my kind, and you can't touch me unless I give you the chance. So go ahead, kill me. Just like you've always wanted, I dare you."

"Shut up!" She flung her arm upward, and something inside her clicked. A blade snapped out of her arm, impaling Vlad, much to his own horror.

She had fought for so long without her weapons, she'd forgotten how they'd unfold from her body. She was a living arsenal, with encyclopedic knowledge of her armaments. But this, this was something new entirely. A thick blade with a serrated edge, attached at the hilt to a series of blue tubes running up her arm, and it had an unearthly blue aura leaking from it, like a ghostly flame.

Vlad choked on the sudden pain, but still managed to find composure, "This.. No, you shouldn't have this power!"

She didn't wait for him to continue, and she ripped the blade across his midsection, cutting unevenly across his body and severing most of his left half outright. She struck him with her free hand, the mere shock of her attack allowed her to hit him without fear of a counter. He fell backwards, having lost his left leg and most of his left torso, and laid, trying to keep his wound off the ground. Demonic green blood oozed from his body, which seemed to contain no organs, and he spat furiously, a mixture of that green blood and his own, human bile.

"It was Spicer, I know it, he was trying to kill me. He's the only reason you're still alive!" Jenny lunged at him with the blade, but he allowed his body to slip through the ground and she could only strike metal. He escaped her, but only for now.

The sword retracted into her body, along with the wires that ran into it, of its own accord. For the best, she supposed, its very presence drained her energy. She moved to Reece, who seemed to have stopped bleeding, miraculously. With minimal effort, she had him over her shoulder, it seemed her strength was returning to her. She wasn't sure where she could go for now, but she started down the hallway. It was odd, but even in this factory she had a newfound confidence. One that came with not having to fear for your life.

….

Kurtis cracked his neck, still feeling a little stiff from his long break. The laboratories didn't give him much time to practice fighting, but, judging from the metallic husks of Jenny Spicers 1-64, he was still in a pretty good way.

"But really Jackie, did you think you could beat me?" He spoke across the room, where the mechanical mastermind of the Empire's forces, Jack Spicer, lay. The few bits of armor that still remained on him were damaged beyond repair. His faced, bruised and cut, had a humble, defeated look to it.

"You studied under me, Jackie. Remember? I taught you so much in those years, and then it happened, you betrayed us all." Kurtis gave him a downward look, and Jack replied weakly.

"You don't understand, what we've seen…"

"I don't really care. That Eternal Lord shit?" He spat on the ground, "I've been to the moon and back I less than a day, I've conducted nuclear fusion with my bare hands, and thanks to you I've reconstructed seventy percent of my body. Your god, real or not, means nothing to me. If I can see you die for what you did to my family, I can be struck down a happy man."

Jack stood, in his broken armor, and reached for a gun, slowly, each movement agonizing. But the second he raised it to fire, Kurtis let a beam of light strike it out of his palm.

"Give up, and die Jackie." Kurtis aimed his hand at Spicer, but before he could end it, his earpiece buzzed with static. He lowered his finger, and placed his other hand to his ear.

"Kurtis, this is Jack, I've found the two from the scouting party, and Hammer squad has held out and repelled the Empire forces advancing on the camp. We're detonating the explosives in ten minutes, get out of there now with whatever data you can."

Kurtis lowered his hand, and thought for a moment. He looked at Spicer, "Get out here, now. You've been saved by fate, but don't count on it happening again." The defeated Empire General turned, and ran, cowardice taking precedence over pride.

He ran his fingers over a nearby access terminal, quickly cracking the thirty-six hundred digit access code, bypassing a flaw in the facial scanning process, and retrieving several key points of data relating to the production of Empire robots and the areas at which they are found. And, without missing a beat, he downloaded the data into his own mind. For a few moments, he scanned the data, finding a very interesting piece relating to the reprogramming and re-equipping of one XJ9 unit.

"Hmm, what have we here? A total memory wipe to follow the modification of several key weapons systems and the addition of the following; spectral energy grid, internal EMP device, and the Off-Wave bomb? What the hell is that?"

He turned from the desk, and began sprinting out of the factory, touching his earpiece to his head, he tuned it to a private frequency and spoke,

"General Jack, this is Kurtis, we need to get that robot to the camp, immediately."

* * *

So, I've been asked to list off all characters and their original works. I was hoping to wait until the end, since we're not quite done here, but,

My Life as a Teenage Robot(Jenny/XJ9, Dr. Nora Wakeman)

Samurai Jack (Jack, Scotsman)

Disgaea;Hour of Darkness(Kurtis, The Land of Celestia)

Homestar Runner( Homsar)

Megas XLR (Coop)

Fallout 3 (Sarah Lyons)

Gears of War (Agustus Cole, Carmine)

Team Fortress 2( The Spy"Espion" The Soldier"Jane Doe" The Demoman "Tavish Degroot")

Warcraft (Zul'jin, The Mages of Kirin-Tor)

Paper Mario; The Thousand Year door(Vivian)

Mario Series (Princess Peach)

Resident Evil Series (Albert Wesker)

Dexter's Lab (Dexter)

Ed, Edd, n Eddy (Rolf)

Danny Phantom (Vlad Masters)

Xiaolin Showdown (Jack Spicer)

Happy Tree Friends (Flippy, Flaky, Mouse Ka-boom)

Street Fighter Series (Vega)

Pucca (Tobe)

One Piece(Zoro)

Well, that's everyone so far. And for those of you wondering, while things like Derrick are from other stories, others like the Blue Moon Fungus and that tank used by the Empire a few chapters ago are original ideas.


	13. The World

**Author's Note**

Well, here we are again. Another day, another author's note that I'm supposed to make sound interesting.

Well, I think I'm running out of chapters for this book. Which would make it pretty short. Honestly, I hadn't expected it to be anyway. This is less of a book, and more of a prologue. Like, in the next book things really heat up, what with the war in Cele-,

Oh wait, you're not supposed to know that.  
I could really use a distraction right now.

**One World**

On a ridge, overlooking the factory, the remains of the dagger squad, Jenny and her injured commander sat, waiting. The complex was rigged, each operative having a payload heavy enough to tear apart a mountain when combined, and would make short work of the thick, steel compound.

"At your mark, Kurtis." Jack raised a hand in his soldier's direction. Kurtis stared back at the obsidian factory, hawk-like eyes flaring.

"I could have had him, I almost had my revenge." He said, his fingers clutched the detonator gingerly, as if he was too nervous to follow through. He glanced back at his general, then back to the factory.

"Please," said Jenny, laying against a tree. Reece, still unconscious, was slumped close to her dented metal body. "Just do it. I don't want to see this place ever again."

He pitied her, for a quick second, before Jack called to him again, sensing his hesitation.

"Nothing in there matters to you Kurtis, you've found that out yourself."

"I wanted to kill him myself," He squeezed the detonator, the safety mechanism installed in the clutch prevented that impulse from activating it. His fingers trembled, realizing how close that little slip could have been, "I won't,"

"He wouldn't die from this, you know that as well." Jack showed no sign of impatience, "Kurtis, you must close this part of your life, sever the disease from your body."

A sigh, and he clicked the safety out from underneath the lever, and then, cringing, he slammed the device downward. The factory at first did nothing, but muffled explosions could be heard from inside of it, even from their position. The reinforced concrete wailed and cracked under the pressure, gouts of flame slipping out, until the path of least resistance, every door and window, burst out in a shockwave that shook the trees. Rubble was torn up and spilled out, as the supply trucks docked along the inner walls of the factory were consumed in tempest of fire and burst, until the entire building was nothing more than a flaming scrap heap, thick black smoke billowing into the dawning sky.

Kurtis' head fell, and he let the detonator slip from his fingers. Jack could feel the pain emanating from his friend, and attempted to comfort him,

"We both knew this day would come."

Kurtis placed a hand on his commander's shoulder, "It doesn't make it any easier, but I'm sure you realize that."

"What I don't understand is, why? Why do you hold such sympathy for some place that has caused you so much pain?"

Kurtis returned the question with a bittersweet smile, "Sometimes, you hold on to anything you can, even if it hurts. Simply because you're starting to run out of things to hold dear."

"He will pay,"

"He will. But for now, we have soldiers that need to be attended to," Kurtis turned to address the rest of the squad, "How's he holding up Zorro?"

The green haired swordsman, his three blades set neatly to his side, was crouching over Reece's body, running over it with what little medical training he had.

"Sir, I don't know what to tell you. I'm no doctor, but even I can tell that this kid's wounds are gone." Zorro stood and stepped away from Reece, his shirt had been removed to examine his wounds. It was clear that the only trace of injury on his body was the deep set scar along his torso, jutting out of his right side.

Jenny, who had contented herself with watching the bright embers of the factory as a way to forget just where she was, couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"That's impossible, he was bleeding to death in my arms just an hour ago!"

Kurtis faced Jenny, looking down on her, but he suddenly turned away and spoke to the wind, "I don't doubt you, if that's what you're insinuating. I was the one who found you two, desperately trying to get out of the factory. I saw his wounds, which makes this all the more baffling."

Zorro crouched down again, and pulled Reece's filthy fatigues from the ground. They were encrusted with blood, dark red against the subdued green and still dripping some oil like fluid. He approached Jack with the rags,

"That's not all, look at this, his clothes are drenched in something that reeks," Kurtis grabbed the suit, and squeezed the saturated fabrics in his hand. A green ooze spilled out of it, and he brought it to his face to examine it. It was cold to the touch, but bubbled constantly, and flowed like quicksilver in his hand.

"My god, Jack, you don't think this is?" His commander nodded, slowly. Kurtis contemplated for a moment, before raising his other hand, slowly. His palm began to glow red, before he submerged his thumb into the pool of goo. It bubbled more violently, before igniting into a ball of blue flames. Kurtis panicked, and the flaming fluid spilled from his hand, into the shirt, which also erupted into a bonfire of blue, spectral fire.

The other members of the Dagger Squad came closer, Zul'jin crouched in front of the flame, watching it in awe.

"Wat in de hell did ya do Kurtis?" He asked, still eying the flames.

"You must have guess by now, Zul," Kurtis said gravely, "It's ectoplasm. And that is a Spirit Ember."

Zul'jin carefully reached around his neck with his ragged hand, pinching a small bead off of one of the necklaces he wore between his gangly yellowed nails. The green claw shot out, into the fire, for a split second. And after its bath in the flames, the tiny bead swirled and pulsated in response.

"No doubt, it's spectral alright." Zul'jin placed the bead in one of the pockets in his coat, and turned to his general, "Who in de world could get deir hands on dis kinda power?"

"The empire always finds a way." Jack sounded remorseful, and he turned to leave, briefly addressing his squad, "Kurtis, if you would kindly, gather everyone up. The Hammer squad is on their way."

Kurtis' eyes followed Jack for a moment, he seemed different. But, he hadn't time to think of it,

"You heard the man, gather up what we've got, we need to get these two back to the base and relay this new information." Zul'jin and Vivian remorsefully took the body of Espion(whom Jack had paid special attention to retrieving before the order was sent out to detonate the factory), and laid it out on a stretcher.

"Ya hear dat Viv? Spectral weaponry. Can even cut a ghostie like you, straight in two." He drew a green finger along his throat, and Vivian shuddered. Jenny and Zorro wordlessly agreed to pick up Reece and place him in a similar stretcher, though the thought of handling her commander's body like a corpse nauseated her.

The Derrick arrived, it's rumbling drowning out the silence in the woods, and hardly anything was said, even by her squad mates, upon their return. Each passed a glance over at Reece, and each was met with the same response from Jenny,

"They said he's going to be fine.. Just fine."

…..

He had asked her, politely, though it was more of an order. On the derrick, Jenny sat alone, and Kurtis curled up next to her, brushing some of the morning dew from her hair as they rode back to the camp. She remembered first meeting him, in a science lab, accompanying her mother.

"_This is a friend of mine, Kurtis, a researcher in both space travel and robotics. He's going to do great things for the world, like you will" _

He spoke softly, he understood the delicate situation he was in. Carefully, he asked, that he would need to examine her, to "put her under the knife" he said, jokingly. He hadn't told her everything, but she'd agreed all the same. She knew there was something wrong, but the familiarity of his voice, it was comforting. Jenny saw something, like she saw in Reece, in him. Something forgotten. It was a bit heart wrenching, almost painful. Melancholy, she figured it was. Another of her mother's gifts.

So she was escorted, away from her squad mates, once again, and brought to a larger tent, lead behind makeshift barriers away from the hurrying scientists, and lay on a small cot beside a wall of screens.

Jenny decided she wouldn't worry about Reece, as she had for the past few hours. He was fine, she said over and over again in her head. His wounds were healed, and she had saved him.

She tried to relax, but Kurtis watched as she shifted restlessly. He stood beside her, thick metal wires in his hands, but hesitated.

"So, sweetheart, are you gonna stay awake for this, or would you prefer to power down?"

"I'm fine, this won't be too long, will it?" she looked indifferent, she pretended she didn't care.

"Glad to see you putting on a brave face," Kurtis joked, trying to get her to relax a bit more, " It's just a routine systems check. We're analyzing your body to see what the Empire installed in you. But, that being said, is there anything I can do to make this go a bit quicker?"

"I don't care."

"C'mon now, humor me." He reached a finger along her side, and she recoiled momentarily at his touch. His hand clicked open, unscrewing her chassis with a concealed tool within his finger.

"Wow, you're a walking tool box," Jenny finally endeavored to chat, immediately regretting her remark sounding rude, "I mean, I don't remember you being, a cyborg?" She hesitated, unsure if he'd always been like this.

"No, you're right, a cyborg. I suppose I could tell you a story while we work, would you care to listen?" Before she could respond, the casing on her torso flipped open, revealing her delicate wiring.

"I suppose."

"Great, if you'd just give me a moment to," he reached into her, slowly, carefully, and disconnected a wire. Jenny felt a shift in her body, she couldn't move her legs, "Don't mean to frighten you, I just need to move this to get this in," he paused, taking one of the wires in his hand and inserting it deep in her body, with a resounding _click. _The computer screens immediately reacted, displaying a list of weaponry, a blueprint of the XJ9 model, and a few other things Jenny didn't immediately recognize.

"Here! There, now we just wait for the files we got out of the factory to synch up with whatever's inside you. Now about that story, still interested?"

"Well, I'm not able to run, so sure." Kurtis was almost shocked, Jenny had made a joke! He grinned broadly, feeling a bit warm inside.

"Okay, where shall I begin? I suppose you know about my position before the war correct? I was designing robotics for space travel, as well as a few side projects in medical science. You see in my world, my Earth was crumbling. We had seen the signs for years, but we were unable to control the problems we faced; pollution, overpopulation and war. So we turned to space travel, and it became my responsibility to help us find a new home, before ours slipped from under our feet.

"But when the Merge happened, that all changed. My focus was still in space, but it was no longer for selfish gain, but for discovery. I had a grand opportunity to take charge of exploring what new worlds were out there, in this strange new dimension. I worked with some of the best, have you heard of the M-zone? ,"

He paused, and Jenny nodded, " Yeah, we had big dreams. My wife was so proud of me, and my little daughter's eyes lit up whenever someone mentioned me. But,"

He stopped again, this time to examine one of the monitors. He scrolled through it's contents quickly, and then pushed the screen away, out of Jenny's view.

"Sorry, as I was saying. Everything was fine, until of course, the war. I wasn't immediately affected, I was far away from the Celestian Incident, in a small factory in Canada. It was our job to analyze the properties of new metals formed from the Merge. We'd actually found some very interesting uses for the newly formed Obsidian compounds, to name a few." He smiled as Jenny's eyes widened with realization.

"I suppose," Jenny said, "That factory holds a bit of history for you then, doesn't it?"

"It did. I mean, it was the last place I saw them." He bit his upper lip, checking the computer screens again, covering for himself to regain his composure. When he returned to her, his tone was growning ever more grim."When the war broke out my family was moved to the Obsidian Factory, the higher ups believed it would be safest. A lot of people were moved to us. Spicer was with me. To put it simply he had betrayed us, built a bomb without us knowing, had components smuggled in by a few other scientists. When it went off, I had no time to react. I lost them, my colleagues, my wife, my daughter, and 70 percent of my body.

"Can you imagine that, Jenny? I don't wanna scare you, but it was hell. The loves of my life were dead, war was tearing the ground out from under my feet, and to top it all off I was trapped in a hospital bed. My body from the waist down, my right arm, my left eye and most of my skin. Said it was a miracle I lived. Then the god damned government, went and turned to the empire, started praising bastards like Spicer. The rebels got me out of there, and gave me the tools to rebuild myself. 70 percent of me, now robotics. At least I could finally put what I had learned into action." The monitors buzzed, and Kurtis looked over to them, a brief flash of a smile lit his face,

"Congratulations Jenny, you're not a bomb."

She was at first horrified, but slowly, Kurtis began reassembling her and calming her fears, "We had found some files, and we were afraid they'd planted something new, a so called "Off-Wave" bomb, inside of you."

"But I'm clear, right? Back to normal?"

"Well not exactly, care for a quick synopsis? Well you've only gained a few things before the restructuring was completed, but you've got about 1.5 times the strength of a normal soldier, mostly bullet proof, slight laser resistance, and the shocks in your legs are reinforced, you could take a nasty fall with those things now." He smiled, regarding her with a hint of pride,

"You'd make an excellent soldier, if you're still up for it."

Jenny looked away, then back to Kurtis, a hint of hesitation in her voice, "I suppose…"

"Let's change the subject," Kurtis sat beside her, comforting her again"I need to run a quick check on your software, but we can still talk, while I work. Do you have any stories for me? How's things been going with your squad? Commander treating you alright"

She smiled coyly,"Well…"

…

"Tavish Degroot?" The boy cautiously read the name from the list, adjusting his stocking cap. The man in the bed, covered to his chest in a thick wool blanket, didn't respond. Instead, the wounded opted to take a deep drink from a bottle beside his bed. The boy waited a bit longer, and finally repeated, "Tavish Degroot, are you Tavish?"

He ducked the bottle of hard cider thrown at him, and nervously approached the patient,

"God dammint, of course I'm Tavish!" the man's voice made the young medical scientist cringe.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Degroot, but you have some visitors."

The man in the bed, waved a lazy hand, "Aye, send 'em in. Not like I'm goin' anywhere."

There was a brief silence, and Tavish shot a scornful look with his one eye at the boy, forcing the words he'd been biting off out. The scientist spoke quickly, "Mr. Degroot, I need you to stop drinking, especially with the blood you've lost."

In response, Tavish spoke slowly, and clearly, "Don't. Suggest that. Again. Follow me boy?" The scientist nodded quickly,

"Good, now bring in the visitors."

"We're already here, asshole." Augustus Cole, the soldier dressed in WWII fatigues close behind, entered the small medical tent. He almost didn't notice at first, but he had another visitor, right behind the two soldiers, a little red porcupine stood, nervously picking dandruff from her quills.

"Thanks for letting us in, Edd," Cole nodded in the boys direction, who was still a bit shaken up, and left clutching his stocking cap. The soldier approached Tavish, whose eyes immediately lit up,

"Jane Doe, you ugly son of a bitch," He extended a hand and Jane leaned in to shake it, vigorously.

"Well, glad to see you made it, Maggot," The soldier laughed, "Not surprising, after all those years we spent hopping on explosives your shins could've survived Nagasaki." Tavish couldn't help but break into a hearty laugh, despite his current situation.

"So, what's the damage?" Jane asked, and Tavish moved the blankets from his makeshift hospital bed. His legs, or what were left of them, were torn to bits. Bone exposed in the left was being rigged with wires, and the job was only half done from the looks of it. The other leg had been blown completely off halfway through the shin, leaving a ragged tear in the bone which would be fit with a prosthetic once it had healed. Flaky flinched, and covered her eyes at the sight, but the two soldiers beside her almost seemed proud of their comrade's wounds.

"Shit, they really did you in," Cole added.

"True," Tavish laughed, "Was worth it though, definitely worth it." He smiled toward Flaky.

"Speaking of which, we just came to drop off the young 'un," Jane pushed Flaky towards the bedside, before he turned to leave, Cole close behind. She stood, awkwardly twisting her foot on the dirt floor of the tent, before Tavish finally caught the nerve to speak up for her.

"So why'd you come to visit? I didn't know you were a fan of legless one-eyed drunks."

"No! I just, I.." She hesitated, "I wanted to thank you, for saving me."

"No trouble little lady, no trouble at all. Figured after all the people I've killed saving one might do me some good."

"I wanted to apologize, too." She muttered, shamefully.

"For what?"

"For being so useless, on the battlefield."

"Oh shut up, you did fine out there. Handled the mortar like a champ, I had heard." Flaky blushed, she could tell Tavish was earnest in his speech.

"Do me a favor, Flaky was it?" She nodded, and Tavish pointed to a small cabinet beside her. "Grab me the brown bottle out of there, will you girl?"

Flaky pulled open the tiny compartment, and blew the dust from its inside. It was dark in the tent, she could barely make out what was on the shelves, so she decided to simply pull out its contents. It was mostly odds and ends, a notepad, a few pens and a deck of cards. It seemed like things to occupy whoever was bedridden at the time. She found the bottle and brought it to Tavish, and even after she continued to dig through while he took slow, contemplative sips of the cider in it.

"What else is in here?"

"What? Oh, I have no idea, it's just a few baubles and the like, keep patients occupied. Doc doesn't know I had the boys back in the Hammer Squad slip some of me favorite scrumpy in there."

"Oh wow!" Flaky reached deep into the cabinet and pulled out a dusty hardcover book, and rubbed the dust off it, squinting to read out its title "1984, by George Orwell" She raced over to Tavish with the eagerness of a young child, "Look what I found!"

He stopped, mid-swig, to examine it, "Hmm, a book? You read much?"

"Of course, it helps forget about all this war. Just to escape a bit. Do you read?"

"Erm, not much. The one eye and the constant drinking make it a wee bit hard to read fine print."

"Oh," She suddenly felt very embarrassed for forgetting his one eye, "I suppose, maybe I could read to you?"

"I don't think," Before he could brush her off, Tavish made the fatal mistake of looking an innocent, hopeful girl in the eyes, and in an instant, his resolve quavered, "I mean, since I won't be going anywhere for a bit, I could listen for a few chapters. But, just so you know, if I start slurring or pass out, I'm not being rude, it's the liquor."

Flaky giggled, because she probably didn't realize Tavish saw that as a real possibility, placed herself close beside Tavish on a small trunk of medical supplies, and opened the book to begin reading.

….

"Alright, you guys are lucky we always pack a few extra tents for the scouting squads, or you'd be out of a place to sleep tonight." Said Zoro, tossing down the bags he had carried for the two, "By the way, I heard you boys fought with the Hammer Squad today, consider yourself honored."

"It was an honor." Flippy moved in front of him, to place the personal items he had sorted from the Rebellion property inside, with Coop close behind.

"Really appreciate the extra ordinance you've hooked us up with, though," The bear smiled, tugging the strap that held a refurbished machine gun to his back. It was the closest to a new weapon they could get. But that wasn't their only gift, Coop had the honor of carrying a specialized, custom built communications device, given only to the higher ups of the Rebellion army. Of course, it was less of a gift, and more of an order(To repair the damaged machine), but to Coop, fiddling around with electronics was a gift. The tent was reasonably large, but contained nothing, save for a few bunks that were to be split with their squad, some trunks beneath the beds, and a table on one end where Coop placed the device and began working immediately.

"By the way, I've heard great things about you Flippy, served in your country's army, saved a doomed mission by name of Operation Tiger Bomb." Zoro said as he kicked a bag into the large tent, "Quite a hero."

"Nobody told you that mission almost went down because of me, did they?"

"Actually, Mouse did, I just figured I'd leave it out."

"What else did he tell you?"

Zoro's face cracked into a wry smile, "Well, I don't know, could've forgotten. In fact, I'd prefer to hear a few stories from you personally. You must have some good fights in your history."

Flippy seemed a bit embarrassed, "That's none of your concern. Why don't you tell me where you're from?"

"Nothing to be said, I was a bounty hunter before the merge, became a rebel after the empire surfaced, and now I'm here. The only reason I'm so far up is because I can fight well."

"Isn't that how it always goes?" Flippy muttered, and for a moment the two couldn't find anything else to say. Thankfully, the silence was cut off by their growling stomachs.

"Heh, long mission," Flippy rubbed his belly.

"Tell me about it, Cap'n doesn't let us eat anything before a fight, says it's good to stay hungry."

"Who, the Scotsman? Doesn't look like he pays much mind to that rule!"

The two shared a laugh, and Zoro mentioned, "Hey, we've got a mess hall a couple tents down, by the arms depot where we picked up the stuff, wanna grab a bite?"

"Absolutely. Hey Coop, you coming, I know you hate missing meals."

Coop, still enthralled by the machine in front of him, took a moment to answer, "Uh, I'm kind of busy with this, can you grab a burger if they have 'em?" Oh and a soda."

"Diet or regular?" Zoro joked, and the two left the tent without another word, leaving Coop to tinker away with the piece of equipment. It was roughly the size of a computer, and the thick metal casing around it had to be removed, before he could do anything. And even inside it was a maze of circuit boards and wires that threatened to collapse the entire system if pulled the wrong way. But, to Coop, each inch he moved inside and each piece of machinery he touched was like an adventure. He was never the sharpest tool in the shed, but machines he understood. He had even worked with technology far beyond that of anything anyone had produced so far, but that was a distant memory now, the fruits of his labor were stolen from him a long time ago.

"Alright, here's the problem, just have to weld this little bit here and replace this piece here with one of these…" His large hands moved deftly through the complex device, and within moments, he had repaired whatever had happened to its innards, and returned it to its casing, good as new. He flicked the power switch, and light static echoed through the tent.

"Alright, we've got power at least, now let's check for a signal," He moved the knobs on one side, slowly, deliberately searching for a frequency of perhaps another battalion, or perhaps even an Empire signal. A sting, screaming suddenly blast through the speakers, and Coop recoiled, accidentally knocking the knob and losing the signal.

"What the hell?" He moved back, and carefully retraced the signal, this time prepared for the voice on the other side,

"-peat, this is an S.O.S, I am Archangel Flonne, seeking ground based rebellion troops! Celestia is at war! I repeat Celestia is at war!"

Horrified, Coop grabbed the receiver, and spoke quickly, "You're speaking to Pvt. Coop, of the 1st Rebellion ground troops, where are you?"

Static, and then the voice replied, "Thank God! Please, I need to land, my craft is damaged and I've lost all my squad, five soldiers were shot down outside of Celestia at my escape, I'm currently-"

The voice cut out accompanied by a crashing, like lightning. Coop shouted into the receiver "Repeat, Flonne, are you there?"

"-Ayday! Losing altitude! I can't-"

An explosion, violent crumpling noises, and then static. Coop threw the receiver aside, "Dammnit! I need to tell, Wait!"

He ran out of the tent, following where he believed Flippy and Zoro had headed.

…

All at once, the world around Reece snapped away, and for a moment, he was alone in darkness, and then, light flooded his vision.

"What happened? Where,"

"Ah, you're awake," A voice, vaguely familiar, calming. It was close, he sat up, realized he was on a cot.

"Your glasses are beside you, the table."

He reached out to a small, folding table beside his bed, and found his glasses. The world focused, he was in a small tent, and realized why the voice sounded so familiar.

It was the infamous General of the Rebellion, who was known only as Jack. He was kneeling on the dirt floor of the tent, still dressed in his white robe, and sipping a cup of what seemed like green tea, with a ceramic pot brewing it on a small fire before him.

And he was accompanied by two others, a small boy dressed in a lab coat that many knew as the child genius Dexter, who had enlisted as a tactician for the Rebellion, if Reece remembered correctly. The other man, in a sharp suit and vest, wearing a strange visor underneath his striking white hair and nursing a cup of coffee with one hand, Reece couldn't recognize, but if he was with these two, he must be a high ranking officer of the rebellion.

"Well well," The one with the coffee spoke, "I was hoping you'd wake up soon, I really wanted to fill our miracle boy in on a few things."

Reece didn't know what to say, and he was still unsure of what had happened at Obsidian, "Wait, what do you mean? What happened at the factory, and where's Jenny?"

"She's been recovered, and is being attended to by one of our best," Dexter spoke up, "She was the one who ended up saving you, if I was told correctly."

"Yes," Jack added, "She was carrying you through the halls of Obsidian, trying to get you out when I found her. You owe her much."

"I, I don't know what to say," Reece trailed off, and the man with the Coffee stepped forward,

"Does it matter? Time marches on, and you, my boy, need to understand what is happening in the here and the now. You're a soldier, correct?"

"I lead a small salvage party,"

"Wonderful, well now you're with the 1st, and after what happened at that factory, we're going to be moving you up a bit in rank."

"I don't understand, what did I do for you to promote me?"

"Well, I could beat around the bush and tell you how valiant you were, and your commitment to your troops, but that's not why. Your history, involvement with the Merge, and how you survived at the factory, we need to keep you safe."

"But, what happened at the factory, I thought I was cut in two."

"As far as I know, you were." The man smiled, "That's what's so incredible."

Dexter stepped forward, "What Godot here means, is that you were contaminated, in a sense, with a substance known as Ectoplasm. It healed your wounds at an alarming rate, and we're curious to see what else it does."

"So, I've got super powers?"

"Well, we ran a few tests," Dexter continued, "And no. That regeneration seemed a one time thing. If we can believe what we saw, your adrenaline from the pain of death and the heat of the moment sped up whatever it was in the ectoplasm that healed you. Meaning, that we've found out it can be used as a nice miracle cure."

"What we want to know," The other man, Godot, Dexter said his name was, "Is why they had this kind of technology at the Obsidian factory. Ghosts and Hybrids have been nearly wiped out, they pose no threat to the Empire."

"Godot, please, that holds no bearings on our current situation. What is important is that Reece understands the position he's in." Jack spoke softly, but it seemed the only reason he did was because he didn't have to yell. When he spoke, the other two fell silent.

"What do you mean?" Reece finally spoke up.

Godot sat on the edge of the cot and sipped his coffee with a grin, "It means it's time for a lesson on current events. Dexter, if you will."

The small boy placed a metal box on the ground, and stretched it out, unlatching various joints until it formed a small metal circle on the ground, and activated a switch on it, causing a bright blue light to shine up from its edges. The lights intersected, and formed a map. It wasn't the map he'd known. It was different, larger to start, the oceans stretched further. The continents seemed foreign. And there were some that were completely new.

"I want you," Godot continued, "to point, at any given land, and I'll give you a summary of how it looks after the merge."

Reece though for a moment. The war had been so sudden that there was little time to explore the vast reaches of the new world. He pointed, out to the land mass he knew somewhat.

"Ah, where we are? You must have a slight idea. This was once known as Canada. It's become somewhat of a safe haven from the Empire's influences. The landmass between it and America was divided a bit by water, a large river now cuts them in two. It's mostly woods up here, frozen towards the north and many towns have been established in the middle as a shot at peace. We fight around the border to keep it safe, but I'm sure you know that."

Without waiting, Reece pointed again, to a larger, rounded landmass beneath them.

"Ah America, land of the free" Godot chuckled a bit at his own joke, "The land has been shifted a bit, more rocky in the center, less plains and more mountains. The west coast has been smoothed out a bit, you could walk right into the ocean, while the east coast is almost entirely cliffs. The entirety of the Government has been taken over politically by the Empire. Somewhat communist, people work nonstop for the war effort. Resources are spread thin, but they take extra care in repressing the populace to prevent revolution within."

Reece cringed at the thought of friends and family who still lived there.

"Where next?" Godot asked, and Reece hastily pointed below it, "What used to be Central and South America, hoo boy. Geologically speaking, the ocean ran right through it, carving it into a bunch of tightly knit islands. And politically speaking, it's just as divided. The one thing the people down there agree upon, though, is the Empire. They only unite to defend an Island being attacked by the Empire. We're given free stay down there because of our fight. The Rebellion has many bases down there, including our HQ."

He scanned the map for a moment, and pointed down, to the south, where two enormous landmasses drifted close to one another, split diagonally by the ocean.

"To the left, Africa, which ended up drifting south toward the right, Australia. The merge did funny things to it, all around the edges are fertile lands, but the center is a deep valley containing an enormous desert. We use the land as protection, The Rebellion, and house some of our classifieds there. The natives oppose the Empire as well, but need our protection a bit more. We're training the Africans, and in exchange we occupy their land. Australia, not as hospitable. They're sitting on top of a goldmine of minerals, many mutated from the merge, but the land above it as a result is constantly getting torn up by strange natural occurrences. Tornadoes, hurricanes, you name it. Fighting's suicide down there, so we unfortunately have to let the better equipped empire troops scoop up all the fancy metals. Civilians were taken to the states or evacuated to Africa."

The next landmass resembled Asia, but the entire left half was broken off, and divided into islands, and Europe seemed to have drifted off, now in between the USA and Asia.

"Wastelands, all wastelands. China was scared, they didn't like the merge and started a campaign to wipe out non-humans. At first it was beaten down, but when the empire emerged we got caught up and couldn't handle China. They ended up blowing up most of their lands. Either them or Non-human extremists and rebels. Whoever landed the last blow hit hard. Most civilians now live in the islands to the left. Russia was steadfast, and took up occupancy to regulate. We're not sure what they're up to but they're fighting the Empire's troops that are trying to invade. So they're okay by us. Europe's in a nice way, now that they're mostly island. The larger ocean shields them from attack, but the Empire uses them as a gate to send troops to China. To keep things peaceful, the Europeans let them. Poor bastards."

It seemed as though the lesson was over, but something still bothered Reece. A larger landmass, that seemed an Island, drifted just above the cluster of European Islands. It took him a moment, but he suddenly placed it.

"Celestia. What happened there?"

"Actually," Godot shook a finger at him playfully as he corrected, "It's the United Skies now. It's amazing, but we've got a floating landmass. Celestia is there, as you said, but it's joined by a few other floating islands. They've created a pact against the Empire, and peace has reigned over all. Touching story really. While we're on the subject, Celestia is seen as a holy place, and many people travel there for pilgrimage, regardless of religion. That's why such efforts were made to preserve it."

It was all too much. Reece had gotten exactly what he wanted, a new world, but, all this information barreling down on him,

"Why did you tell me this? Why do I need to know all this?"

"We have a shield," Godot stood, and took a sip of coffee, "That hides us, but does not protect us. With what we've just did, the Empire's going to come crashing down on us. And we need an escape. So tell us boy, will we skirt along the Empire's shores to reach South America, or perhaps take our chances with Russia? Risk being discovered in Europe, or take the long way to Africa?"

"I'm just a soldier!" Reece was almost breaking down, "I can't choose something like this!"

"Reece," Jack's voice, steadfast and patient, broke through his fear, "We are asking you, because we are unsure. This situation, we are at a checkmate. It is fate that you survived, and destiny that we have met, now tell us. You will know."

Reece paused, and thought deeply. He was no chess master, but he knew a bit of strategy. If what Jack had said was true, that this was destiny, he'd know what to do. But, nothing came. He sat, in painful silence, his heart pounding and the General's eyes, judging him.

But that answer never came, at that moment, a soldier, a low ranking scavenger, like himself, threw open the tent's door, and entered, panicked.

"Sir! We were conducting a salvage of the factory's wreckage, when an aircraft, something we've never seen before, crashed nearby. It was a small, one person craft, and, and" He stuttered, from shock and exhaustion both, "It was a girl! There was nothing but a little girl in it, and the craziest thing was she was alive! We, we took her back and,"

Someone else, three people to be exact, pushed themselves in behind the soldier. It was Coop, Flippy Zoro.

"Sir!" Coop stepped forward, "The communications relay that was given to me to be fixed, it received a signal, a girl, named Flonne, she was sending out an S.O.S, claiming Celestia was at war! But the signal cut out, we think she crashed."

"Impossible!" Godot tossed his coffee across the tent, the soldiers jumped to avoid the splash, "Celestia is miles in the air, no one could launch an attack from the outside without us knowing."

Jack slowly stood amidst the confusion, placing his teacup aside, everyone in the room fell silent, "Then there is no doubt. Someone on the inside has betrayed Celestia. This is no coincidence, the distress signal and the crashing landing."

"But, sir, we can't risk," Godot began, but Jack cut him off,

"We have no time to waste, if we do not act soon, then the Empire will strike first. The only thing we will wait for is the recovery of this girl. We need any information we can get from her. Begin to pack up the tents, and rally the troops we will have to be ready to move. Reece, can you walk?"

He was dumbfounded, but Reece shifted, and landed uneasily on the ground, before steadying himself, "Yes sir!"

It seemed destiny was acting again.

…

In the twisted wreckage of the factory, still writhing with flames of the bombs that tore it asunder, a blue bonfire burned in its center. There, two figures stood, admiring the warmth and light of the ghostly flame.

"So," The first figure, one Albert Wesker, spoke, "I suppose you don't know where our acquaintance Mr. Masters is?"

"I'm afraid not," The other, Jack Spicer, spoke in a melancholy tone, "I know one thing, he's alive."

To punctuate those words, the spectral remains of Vlad Masters, ripped in half, floating without his torso, appeared before them.

"I apologize for keeping you waiting, but I had a run in with an old friend."

"Disappointing, Mr. Masters." Wesker spoke, his monotone voice singed with anger and disgust, "You couldn't even kill the boy. But that has no meaning now."

"I will kill him, rest assured!" Though wounded, Vlad was as fierce as ever.

"You won't receive the opportunity." Wesker said, and a chill ran down Vlad's ethereal spine.

"No, it's my time? I'm to be, first?"

"Cheer up Vlad," he was mocking him now, "you're not the first. That honor belongs to... Well, I won't mention her name, but am I wrong to assume you still remember?"

Before he could respond, Vlad felt something press against his neck, and an ectoplasmic bullet fired through his skull, piercing his very soul. He quavered, but in a moment collapsed and began to dissolve into a puddle of primordial ooze.

"I'm really upset, you know." Spicer said, holstering the gun.

"About, your bet?" Wesker asked, and Spicer nodded, "That's right, you owe a substantial bit of money to Mr. Minch, now don't you?"

"Don't mention it."

"Well, in any case I apologize for being so late. I took too long to deliver the news to Vlad about his termination, and Vulcanus got impatient, he began the war two weeks ago."

"Wonderful, another mess to clean up." Spicer began to leave the scene, before he realized something, "Wesker, do you think the Eternal Lord, foresaw Vulcanus starting the war?"

Wesker was already headed off in another direction, and he called back,

"Of course he did, Mr. Spicer,

"He foresaw everything"

* * *

**One World: Book one; Obsidian  
END**

So tell me, was it worth the wait? Sorry I took so long, this chapter had a lot of planning and a LOT of content. Now I'll just have to start work on the next book, won't I?

Oh, and as far as new characters go:

Disagea; Hour of Darkness (Flonne, Vulcanus)

Phoenix Wright; Trials and Tribulations (Godot)

And that "Mr. Minch" You've gotta figure that one out yourself, can't go spoiling everything.

See you next time, in

**One World, Book 2;Skies Aflame**


End file.
